Question: Why is money the basis of all problems in the world?

Answer: Because it is the equivalent of our investing in each other. I give something so I am supposed to take something.

Question: If we remove money, would there be no problems?

Answer: If everything that is common were removed, completely does not belong to anyone at all, and when everyone is concerned about each other as one common whole: either I will receive, or I will give, or another will receive, or will give to me, and all this is equivalent in my feelings, only then can we talk about removing money completely.

Money is a cover for my attitude toward others. There is nothing you can do about it.

Question: So in our world, will the problems disappear even if the money disappears?

Answer: No. Only when we rise above ourselves in our feelings will this world itself simply disappear because it exists only in our sensations.
[322267]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. It’s All Because of Money.”

Related Material:
Why Do We Need Money?
Money Is A Covering For Desire
What Is Money?

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

Of course, our duty in the corporeal world is to protect ourselves and, as commanded, to kill one who is trying to kill us. But we must understand that by doing this we are only buying ourselves a short delay for the correction of our souls, which is entrusted to us.

However, a soldier of the Israeli army who is at war should not fear that if he dies, he will not be able to complete his final correction. War is arranged in such a way that if he is destined to die, it means that he has already completed his correction.

This correction affects not only those who were killed or injured, but all the circles around them: family, friends, and acquaintances who experience this trauma. Desires, thoughts, and actions caused by the tragic event of the death of soldiers correct the thoughts of their loved ones, the entire nation, and all humanity.

After all, all souls are, in essence, one soul, and through the mutual inclusion of souls, they influence everyone.

There is a big difference between dying from a natural disaster like an earthquake and dying as a soldier in war. An earthquake is caused by the inanimate level, and death in battle is caused by the human level, and the difference in the correction of souls is enormous.

War comes to shake people up and shorten their time of correction. After the war, thoughts and relationships are usually renewed. Therefore, until the end of correction, it is impossible to completely avoid wars, and history continues. The purpose of war is to awaken a new response in desire so that with new desires, with the experience of war, people acquire the ability to make decisions that are closer to the final correction.

In the end, only the Creator always wins in war because in the end we are convinced that we cannot have any victory unless we unite and receive power from above. All our perfection and peace lie only in the Creator.

The Creator wants us to understand that only the unity of the people of Israel without any borders will help us save ourselves and the whole world from the abyss into which we are all gradually sliding.

Therefore, let us be strong in spirit, let us not cry, and, as they say, let us meet the coming day with a new song in our hearts.
[322712]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/23, Writing of Rabash “And It Shall Come to Pass When You Come to the Land that the Lord Your God Gives You”

Related Material:
So that there Would Be No War
What Does Israel Need to Win?
A War Is Correction In A Dramatic Way

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

Question: A man saw in a dream that the king is in heaven and the sage is in hell. He asked the Creator, “What is the reason for this? I thought it would be the opposite, that the king would be in hell and the sage in heaven.” And he received the answer: “This king was accepted into heaven for his attachment to the sages. And the sage was sent to hell for his closeness to the kings.”

The question is, what qualities should a ruler possess in order to bring sages closer to himself, and not politicians?

Answer: He must have great respect for sages. The most important thing in his life is that he must understand that he needs to surround himself with sages.

Question: What do you mean by the word “sage”?

Answer: It is a person who strives to understand the meaning of life.

Question: Is this a sage? So for a ruler who has to take care of the people, security, the economy, etc., the main thing is to surround himself with those who talk about the meaning of life and think about it?

Answer: Yes, and then everything will work out.

Comment: In principle, for us it all stopped with the king-sages who embodied wisdom themselves: King David, King Solomon…

My Response: Oh, those were the first colossuses! They embodied wisdom themselves and surrounded themselves with sages.

Question: Should the ruler be like that today?

Answer: It is ridiculous to assume that. But in general, yes.

Question: The sage was sent to hell because he was too close to the rulers. There is some kind of contradiction here. How can a sage not bend under the power of the rulers?

Answer: He must be independent. Absolutely! Independent from everyone! And then the rulers will listen to the sages. That is, the independence of the sage will attract the ruler to him.

Question: That sage who ended up in hell, did it turn out that he was not very wise?

Answer: Of course, he bent under the ruler.

Question: What is the conclusion? What is a true ruler and what is a true sage?

Answer: A true sage is one who prefers wisdom to any other attributes and places it above everything else. And a true ruler is the one who bows down to the wisdom of the sages and places them above all.

Question: Beautiful! This view that professionals should be in power—economic professionals, security professionals, political professionals—in your opinion, is this view incorrect?

Answer: No, they are pulling humanity in absolutely the wrong direction.
[321877]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/9/23

Related Material:
Only A Sage Can Recognize A Sage
Faith In The Sages
An Unhappy Sage

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News - No Comments →

Question: What should be the conditions for people to be ready to solve the task of their development? There must be some conditions under which this will happen.

Answer: Since the goal of our development is concealed from us, because no matter how philosophers struggle with it, we cannot clearly define this goal, and everything that we define collides with our internal disagreement with it, it is too early for us to pose such questions. Humanity still needs to develop perhaps for many centuries.

But as we develop naturally, we will gradually come to the point that we will be able to solve global issues more and more. But, again, at what threshold we will begin to master solutions to questions about the meaning of life is not yet even approximately visible. We do not know what the meaning of human existence is.

Question: Does the fact that humanity, as we see it, is moving toward, God forbid, its destruction, delay its movement toward revelation or not?

Answer: No, I believe all this is interconnected: it is impossible to move forward without falling, without looking back, without disappointments. All this is one path. But we are still in the early stages of development.
[321974]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/27/23

Related Material:
When There Is No Answer to the Question About the Meaning of Life
What Is Worth Living For?
The Perils Of Egoistic Interconnection And Its Remedy—The Method Of Kabbalah

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Kabbalah Study, Meaning Of Life, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Arkady writes:

Dear Michael Laitman,

As I understand it, the Tower of Babel is the root of all troubles. There was one nation, they built a Tower, and the Creator broke it and mixed their languages.

What for? All the terrible things that are happening today are from there.

Please explain these actions of the Creator. You keep saying that He is good. Why did He break the tower, mix the languages, and cause a quarrel between everyone? What for? It all started so peacefully.”

It is written in the Torah (Bereshit, Genesis, 11:4): “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth.”

This is how it all started. What is wrong with that, please tell me.

Answer: There is nothing wrong. The Creator did not want it to be like this.

Question: Later it becomes clear that He did not want it to be like this. But what was their transgression? They wanted to build a tower.

Answer: They wanted to be all together, build, and live, be one commune, respect and love each other, and so on. But the Creator wanted it to be according to His conditions and not theirs. This is why He disrupted it all.

Question: What is the Tower of Babel in the spiritual sense?

Answer: It is an egoistic elevation of corporeal life, which is elevated to the state of love for one’s neighbor based on egoism.

Question: Are you saying that this is the main mistake?

Answer: Of course! They do not need the Creator, they do not need anyone: “neither God, nor king, nor hero.” Just us, the common people.

Question: In principle, was this construction of the Tower of Babel by and large at the heart of communism and all revolutions, “peace to huts, war to palaces,” that is, “we will manage?”

Answer: Yes.

Question: When does a person build this inside himself? He is building a career for himself, he is making money, is this when he is gradually building the Tower of Babel?

Answer: Yes, but this is to a small extent. This is not the highest goal. Because in the case of the Tower of Babel, they built it for themselves forever. But here, even though a person is building a career and everything else, he knows that he will die.

Comment: And there, if they could do it, then, as they say, we will reach the heavens.

My Response: Up to heavens, yes. This “up to heavens” is a big problem; the main one. That is, you can build a tower, but do not touch the Creator. You will not reach Him.

Question: Arkady further asks: “What is it that the Creator does not like here?”

“And the Lord said, ‘Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Come, let us descend and confuse their language so that one will not understand the language of his companion.’

“And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city” (Bereshit, Genesis, 11:6-11:8).

That is, Arkady believes that all the problems began with this.

Answer: Yes. That is, they will not be able to come to a common egoistic result. This result should be: we are all together and therefore we all feel good.

Comment: When we say the phrase: “United nation, we are together, and we will defeat everyone. One nation is invincible”…

My Response: No, this is not enough to defeat egoism. There is also a need for a Creator here. This is the desire of the Creator.

Question: Then on what basis can a tower be built so that it does not collapse?

Answer: Bestowal and love for each other and for the Creator.

Comment: When you say “and for the Creator,” this is difficult. A person does not see or feel Him.

My Response: No, “for the Creator” does not mean some kind of God, somewhere there, so high up that he is not visible. “For the Creator” means a connection between us that we raise above ourselves.

Above yourself, that is, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Then above all this, you raise the ideal of the Creator, who created all this above our egoism.

Question: That is, my nature is “I, and everything is for me,” and here, on the contrary, I want to rise above this so that everything is different, everything is for the other. Is this called building a real tower?

Answer: Of course. Then it will stand forever.

Question: Why do we build towers all the time? After all, it collapsed a long time ago, historically speaking, and we continue and continue to build these towers.

Answer: Humanity needs this. Towers, pyramids, mausoleums—all this is necessary, a person needs it.

Question: Even though they are all falling apart and will definitely fall apart?

Answer: Yes, but we are still building.

Question: Why do we have this in us?

Answer: We need this symbol. We are building a house for our egoism.

Question: So we need a symbol that we can pray for all the time. Is this what they call “praying to other gods”?

Answer: Yes. It can be temples, it can be pyramids, no matter what form it takes.

Question: In what case will we stop building them?

Answer: Only when the Creator is revealed to us.

Comment: At the same time, we do not know when He will be revealed.

My Response: We do not know, but only in this case. Revelation will completely cover our dreams, plans, future, and everything! That is, when He is revealed to us, we will understand that all this was complete nonsense and that we built it all in vain.

Question: You say that the Creator is mercy, kindness, and love all the time, and so on. Why is this such a cruel mercy that it lasts for a long time, that blood has been shed for centuries? Wars have been going on for centuries, but He still does not reveal Himself. Why?

Answer: He is revealed under certain conditions! What do you want from Him? He must be revealed in the state of His absolute unity with people. But it does not exist. And so far, there are no inclinations for this.

Question: The unity of the Creator with people? In which case?

Answer: If we are similar in qualities to Him, that is, if we are like Him, He will be revealed.
[320892]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/30/23

Related Material:
The Tower Of Babel—The Rise Of Selfishness
The Tower Of Babel As The Essence Of Relationships Between People
From Babylon To Rome, Part 2

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, Perception - No Comments →

Comment: Igor asks questions about Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.”

Somehow this quote does not quite match with what you are saying. It is written in the article: “It turns out that there is no such thing as selfishness in the world, since no one here is free or stands in his own right.” How is there no egoism? You are saying we are all egoists.

My Response: No, this egoism is not ours, it is not our choice. It is our nature that is imposed on us. And of course, we have to seek ways to get rid of it and correct it.

For this, the science of Kabbalah exists. And if we gradually correct our nature, we will see that there is a way to rise above egoism and live according to different laws.

Question: So, when it is said that there is no egoism in the world because there is not a single free person here, does it mean that we should want to approach freedom? Otherwise, if you stop a person on the street, as you’ve been saying all along, and say, “You are an egoist,” he will say, “What do you mean, I am an egoist?” He has no awareness of evil.

When does this awareness come?

Answer: To achieve this, you have to start studying Kabbalah. And gradually, over the course of just a few months, a person begins to understand that selfishness guides him and he cannot escape from it anywhere, he is enslaved by it, and therefore the only one to blame is the Creator.

Question: Not myself, but the Creator?

Answer: Yes! Who created the ego?! So, it is said:”I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” So, the only thing we have to do is to reveal our nature as selfish and to reveal the method of correcting our nature as Torah.

Question: Meaning that when I feel bad and I understand that this is because of my egoism, I blame the Creator for this and not myself?

Answer: You can blame the Creator. But, in principle, the Creator does not run anywhere from this responsibility. He says: “The light in the Torah reforms him; the Torah is the light of Torah, which reforms a person,” and why I have made you egoists; and for you to correct yourself, you must study yourself and agree that it is precisely this attitude toward the world as evil and the opportunity to correct the world that are in your hands.

Question: Why does it take millennia for humanity to get to this form?

Answer: It does not want it. It does not want to look in this direction.

Question: It does not want to look within itself? And millennia of wars, suffering, blood, everything, everything are needed?

Answer: All of this is part of the correction process. It is us who count everything by days, hours, weeks and so on, but the Creator has no time.

Question: So, you are saying that there is no history as such? History does not exist?

Answer: There is, but all of it eventually is connected to the general correction nonetheless.

Question: Meaning, it is a force that accumulates? And only for this one solution: The evil is in me and I should correct it?

Answer: Of course, and nothing else is needed besides that.

Question: It is amazing of course! All historians and archaeologists are engaged in history, archaeology, and sciences digging out how we came to be: the Big Bang.And, in essence, it turns out that everything converges to one point.

Are all these sciences necessary, in your opinion?

Answer: No. If we had right away engaged in what is necessary, correcting ourselves and uniting, then we would not have needed all of this.

Question: In other words, we don’t really need all the knowledge?

Answer: No. We would have learned everything from nature itself.
[321183]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

Related Material:
Evil Should Not Be Destroyed
“I Have Created The Evil Inclination”
“Take Off The Rose-Colored Glasses!”

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

Now we are in the world of infinity in which there are an infinite number of images, connections, and all kinds of properties. But we perceive it as our world. We build some kind of “toys in it, and do things because we do not want to expand our perception of it.

We have fenced ourselves off from the infinite, special world we actually live in, and instead of expanding our perception and feeling what it is, we keep ourselves busy with playing and talking to ourselves, practically lying to ourselves, and that is how we exist.

We are given some segment of existence called our life. Within this framework, we are given the opportunity to expand the boundaries of our perception so much as to go beyond the limits of the bodily sensory organs and begin to perceive the world around us differently from how it is depicted to us through the five corporeal senses. Our vision and hearing are so limited that they give us a very small picture, which we call our world.

Kabbalists do not consider it to exist at all. They say it is “an imaginary world, a contrived world,” because in fact, it has nothing to do with the true picture, which is revealed if you begin to expand your perception and reveal the real universe.

But what do we do? We deceive ourselves throughout our lives. Inside the small picture of the world that we perceive, we begin to play with all sorts of toys and movies. It is a pity!

But since there is a program of creation from which we cannot escape, in this limited picture of the world, which is screened to us through our five senses, we gradually begin to feel an acute lack: “It is not enough. We want more. We feel bad. We need to get out of this state.”

Yet we are trying to somehow talk ourselves out of it, spinning around in order to stop feeling the crisis. In fact, this is a crisis in our perception of the universe. Nature pushes us to rise, expand our perception, and begin to feel the eternal perfect picture of the world that exists outside of us.

But we do not want to do that; we resist until we go through such suffering that will no longer let us remain in this picture, and we begin to associate our suffering with the limitation of our perception. Then we will have to change ourselves.
[321481]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Limitations of Vision and Hearing” 11/29/11

Related Material:
How We Perceive The World
To Perceive The World As It Is
How We Perceive The World

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Perception - No Comments →

Comment: Please comment on a verse by the ancient Persian poet Sa’adi. It is written in gold letters and adorns the pediment of the building of the UN headquarters in New York.

Sa’adi writes:

           All human beings are members of one frame,
          Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
          When time afflicts a limb with pain,
          The other limbs cannot at rest remain.
          If thou feel not for other’s misery,
          A human being is no name for thee.

It feels like he was a Kabbalist too.

My Response: Did you and I together visit a Sufi in England?

Comment: He made a serious impression then. Do you mean that he is an Iranian Sufi after all?

My Response: Yes.

Question: “All human beings are members of one frame,” what does this mean?

Answer: One frame is one person.

Question: The entire world?

Answer: The entire world, yes.

Question: Is it all like the organs of one person?

Answer: The Creator created a man, one man, Adam. This is how it is in reality. What we see is our egoism that separates us.

Question: So, is it all, in fact, a lie? Is the truth that we are all connected?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then he writes: “Since all, at first, from the same essence came.” What does this mean? What kind of essence is this?

Answer: All was created from one single egoism. This is the essence.

Comment: That is, our nature is definitely the egoism of everyone.

“When time afflicts a limb with pain, The other limbs cannot at rest remain.”

My Response: Yes. Even if one part of our body is affected by egoism, our whole body, the whole person, is sick. This is like a cancer cell.

Comment: In fact, now the whole body is really affected.

My Response: Now all of humanity is affected. But this is good.

Question: What is good about it?

Answer: The good thing is that this is very close to the complete recognition of egoism. That is, if we recognize that we are all affected by this, let’s say, cancerous tumor, then we will look for a cure for it.

Question: But, in fact, it is written that at least some small part. Does it mean that we are not talking about some kind of cure for one part? It does not seem to be possible.

Answer: No, no, we are talking about the cure of all of humanity.

Question: Does it mean that one part cannot be cured? Should this be the cure for all of humanity?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Then he writes: “If thou feel not for other’s misery, A human being is no name for thee.”

My Response: Yes. If you do not feel the other’s misery, then you are not human.

Question: Do you perceive this directly?

Answer: Yes. People will see, recognize, and understand that you are like that.

Question: It does not look easy either. Today, the earth is covered with misery by and large.

Answer: Yes, but what is happening now is not the end! I can see by the “holy people,” as they say, how far they are from all this.

Question: But they should carry only one thing, by and large. This is why you call them the “holy people.” What should they carry?

Answer: That the Creator is one.

Question: Is this the message that we need to spread around the world?

Answer: Yes.
[321031]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/30/23

Related Material:
Man Is Someone Who Is Compassionate
Return To The Likeness Of An Adam
Becoming Adam

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Crisis, Globalization, Israel, Nations of the World, News - No Comments →

For thousands of years nature has always been giving, but we have evolved as egoistic beings, constantly taking. And this is normal, as according to the program of nature, we were supposed to be like that and to develop egotistically.

It is like a growing child that you feed and give everything to, he develops egotistically, and you are pleased with that. And then he grows up, and suddenly you tell him: “That is it! Now go to work, pay for yourself, do everything for yourself, and take responsibility for yourself. And look, if you do something wrong, you will be punished.”

That is where we are today: we developed and developed like little children, and then we reached adulthood, the world has shrunk, become global, and integral, and it forces us to be adults. Being adults means being in the right connection with each other.

Just as an adult at the age of 20 to 25 begins to work, build himself, his home, and connect with the world as a doer, now humanity has similarly reached the age when it has become an adult.

We are being shown our place of work now. We must connect with each other and build a new society that is not like it was before.

Previously, we egoistically grew for thousands of years, and now we must connect with each other according to the law of mutual guarantee, mutual responsibility, and mutual concessions. You do not want to? You will receive blows from nature because you do not conform to it. This is where we are now; we are becoming adults.

I understand that we do not want this. Who does? When I am a child, there are no claims against me. When I misbehaved, broke something, or played around, I was treated like a child. But when I become an adult, it obligates me. But we do not realize this yet.

We are resistant to it and opposed to it; we want to play with some toys. I look at these supposedly strong, great, wise people of the world, and they are like children in a sandbox who do not want to crawl out of it even though they have already outgrown their age.

When you tell them this, they get offended and think you are an unrealistic person: “Look at this world! You can play in it as much as you want: stock market, money, cars, wine, movies! And what are you suggesting here? That is not what we want at all! Be responsible for something—why do we need that? We have enough small toys around us and need nothing more.”

This is a big problem. But still, we will have to get out of the sandbox.
[321428]
From KabTV’s “I got a call. Reasons for Cancer and AIDS” 10/29/11

Related Material:
Two Ways of Development of Humanity
It Is Time for People to Open Their Eyes
Two Ways Toward The Same Goal

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Globalization - No Comments →

Question: Does the Creator feel pleasure when I return to Him, through the reflected light, the pleasure He filled me with? After all, He does not feel a lack of anything.

Answer: Yes, you can be sure He receives pleasure from you.

Question: By annulling ourselves in the ten, do we allow our friends to elevate or lower us?

Answer: The main thing is to annul. It does not matter what I may experience at the same time: ups or downs. The main thing is that I nullify myself.

Question: What is humility?

Answer: Humility is when you accept the greatness of the Creator on any terms. The main thing is to come closer to Him.

Question: How does my egoism transform when I suppress it constantly, try to be good, and do not show it in a group?

Answer: It is hard to explain, but eventually, we will understand how our egoism turns into the correct Kli from the point of view of joy and the point of view of grief. We will see its unique transformations later.
[321746]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is “The Lord Is High, and the Low Will See”? – 1“

Related Material:
Questions about Spiritual Work—42
Questions about Spiritual Work—41
Questions about Spiritual Work—40

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Globalization, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →