Emotional stability is a serious problem during the time of the coronavirus due to quarantine and stressful situations in families. Many more people need the help of  psychologists, they feel isolated and suffer from loneliness like never before.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, medical experts reported an epidemic of loneliness in the United States. The coronavirus sharply exacerbated this problem, since it affects 28 percent of American homes: that is, about 36 million people live alone, without a family, without children.

On the other hand, there is hope that the coronavirus will force us to pay attention to the problem of loneliness and look for ways to establish more social ties in the future.

As it turned out, it is easier to avoid the coronavirus infection than to protect yourself from emotional stress and mental disorders due to the quarantine. How should the society deal with the effects of social isolation after the coronavirus?

The feeling of loneliness will continue after the epidemic and will only grow. Society will split into many parts, and people will be less and less in contact with each other. There will be less opportunity for meetings and communication at workplaces. Sports clubs, restaurants, bars, and theaters will be visited by fewer people. We will feel more and more separated from one another, distant.

A new wave of coronavirus and other problems will force us to move away from one another, and in addition, everyone will be preoccupied with the problems of their own health and the problems of society. And we will see that not only 36 million people living alone suffer from loneliness, but many more.

The number of divorces and other problems in families will increase sharply. We are facing a very difficult period when humanity will have to understand that it is no longer possible to exist according to the old rules and it is necessary to establish a new order of life.

The fact is that a person today feels very lonely in this vast world. And although this world is so rich and multicolored, man cannot find himself in it. Even if he has a good income and can afford a lot in material terms, he still suffers from loneliness. After all, we are not taught how to establish the right connections and we are not prepared for life in a global and integral world.

We don’t feel that we live inside the same sphere where the inanimate, vegetative, and animate world and people exist together, in one integrated system on the globe.

On the contrary, we all gang up on one another in personal relations and entire nations and states. And here comes the coronavirus and many other problems that are inevitable with us behaving like that, and of course we won’t feel better.

One Missouri teacher described her condition during quarantine as follows: “Some days I hold on and don’t feel that bad, but on other days it seems to me that if this quarantine lasts a little longer, I just won”t be able to stand it anymore and will go crazy. Can I stay in the right mind, continuing to live alone for months, years?”

Why is connecting between people so important to them? Why do people need constant communication with other people, and if they do not know how to do it right, then they either go crazy from loneliness, or live together and drive each other crazy?

The fact is that man is a social creature. We cannot live like animals that meet for a short time to produce offspring and then separate. A man needs a family, society, a home, a city, and a country where he can live with others.

A person needs an emotional connection, which does not exist in the inanimate, vegetative, or animate nature: not chemical, hormonal, but sensory. But such a connection does not work out for us, and we are trying to replace these sensory relationships with business or competitive ones.

And everyone suffers from this. Even the richest man does not have what he should receive from society. He needs to receive from society more than from his mother.

But we do not have this because we are not building a society that would give everyone a feeling of warmth, confidence, and support. And without this, a person feels like in a vacuum or even worse, in a hostile environment. He goes out into the street and perceives every person he meets as his enemy.

Humanity is suffering a lot from this. And as a result of such relationships between us, with our selfish thoughts and desires, we create a place from which all sorts of pests, such as the coronavirus, come out, and we ourselves endanger our lives.

In the end, we need to figure out why we live, who we are, why we behave this way? Can we relate to each other differently?

Let’s think about how to build a society that matches the entire universe. After all, all of nature is integral, all its parts are interconnected. And human society must be as friendly, built on mutual support. But we built it in our egoism as exactly the opposite.

The time has come to conduct a complete audit and decide that we are going against our egoistic nature in order to build the right connection between everyone above it. Our good future depends only on this.

It is clear that man himself, who has fallen into a difficult situation, does not know what to do, and is confused under the pressure of the environment, his debts and obligations. It remains only to regret it. But there are social systems that are obligated to think about it. It is already clear that it is impossible to continue this way, because we are approaching total destruction.

We need a system of integral education in order to cultivate a new person who is more friendly. Nature obliges us to this. We are inside the sphere as a single symbiosis, where inanimate nature, plants, and animals all support and supplement each other. Everything except man!

Man alone wants to rule over all without any boundaries. He does not care that he harms the overall system. If you do not stop man, he will destroy the globe.

Therefore, from the point of view of the general nature and our internal nature, we must realize that we belong to one integral, interconnected system, and educate ourselves anew.
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From KabTV’s “Global Perspectives,” 5/15/20

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For many generations, women have been in the shadows. But in our time, they are beginning to awaken and come forward because we live in the last generation, the last stage of development of humanity, which must bring unity among all men and all women and then unite men and women together with the Creator.

Kabbalists wrote about the coming of the last generation and all its signs are confirmed judging by the global coronavirus pandemic as well as other events that are yet to happen in the near future.

The progress in the 21st century brought us to a state where there is nothing to do but unite with each other and rise to the spiritual level. And here, in the birth of a new humanity, women must fulfill their irreplaceable role.

What is the difference between a woman’s work in the new, post-coronavirus world and the old one? We still do not really understand and feel it, but we can already see how the coronavirus has locked us inside our homes, inside our families, leaving us alone with our husband or wife, with our children, with all our problems.

We start to look at life in a completely different way because the future is covered with uncertainty. And even now, with the easing of the quarantine and seemingly returning to normal life, we do not know what will happen, and we are afraid of a new wave of the coronavirus. It is possible that there are many other dangerous viruses besides it.

We must understand that all this comes in order to make us one humanity. And most importantly, to organize women to unite and lead the world. If people now spend more time at home, it means that women receive huge power.

Many will lose their jobs completely, others will work from home via the Internet, meaning, men will be at home most of the time. And if everything is concentrated in the house, then, of course, a woman will have a more important, high, and decisive position. The house is run by the woman, not the man.

And so, if we act wisely and delicately, women can gradually draw men to the correction of the world, which is already bound to come and is approaching. We have no choice. We need to explain this to our men and convince them to participate in it.

A woman should, as a mother, take care of her children and her husband in order to guide them in the right direction toward correction. And then, we will definitely be able to achieve peace in the family and peace in the world, as well as rise to connect with the Creator.

So, the last generation will be the time of the woman if she can fulfill her role. If not, we will have to move toward correction through blows and suffering.
[264942]
From a Kabbalah Lesson “Women in the New World,” 5/9/20

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Question: A letter from a doctor in Italy was posted on the Internet, who writes: “Never, even in the darkest nightmares, did I imagine that I could see and experience what was happening in our hospital for three weeks. The nightmare was growing.

At first there were several patients, then dozens, and then hundreds. And now we are no longer doctors, but sorters on the conveyor belt. And we decide who is to live and who is to be sent home to die.

No later than two weeks ago, my colleagues and I were atheists. This was normal because we are doctors and we know that science excludes the existence of God. Now we have to admit: we, as humans, have reached our limits, we cannot do more. And we are exhausted, two of our colleagues died, and others became infected.”

Answer: He was shown the road, that there is the upper force, the upper plan, the upper predestination, and this comes from the Creator. That is, another higher power, besides yourself, since you considered yourself a master. There is another master who shows and manifests Himself now in front of everyone in the world. And every person in the world somehow feels that he is “walking under God.”

And this is good. Everyone, however, has his own ideas. Basically, these are such crass, primitive ideas that it is better not to talk about them, better not to say who they consider God is, etc. But still, it is a step forward.

A person is no longer like a small child who repeats: “It fell by itself; it broke by itself.” But he already says: “No, there is an upper predestination here; there is some will, some power here. It did not happen by itself, it is not even me—I am governed.” That is, there is a step forward here.

Question: It is clear that this is the cry of a man who is at a dead end and does not know what to do. But how does one establish this connection with the Creator, with nature? How?

Answer: A person must want it. Seriously want it. And only in this way will he come to the Creator.

Question: How can he want without suffering, without being forced to?

Answer: It is impossible without suffering. Everything that we ultimately receive, absorb, and understand, no matter what we do, is reached by pain.

Comment: But there is no upper humaneness in this, there is no kindness in this.

My Response: This is according to your understanding. And I claim that it could not be otherwise, because otherwise you will not have the correct aspiration, there would be no desire, and there would be no basis for understanding. After all, everything you attain, you attain as something opposite from yourself, you attain the Creator.

Besides man, there is only the Creator. How can I discern Him, not just what He set around me here, but Himself? In order to do this, I really need to make an effort.

And you say: “No, let it come by itself.” It will not come by itself. You will not have a desire for it. You must have an intention, a desire, an aspiration, a pain. And when you feel that you are in exile from the Creator and suddenly begin to reveal Him, you will see that the Creator says: “Well, come here! I have been waiting for you for so long!”

And how do we act with children? Is it not the same? We want to arouse in them some desire, some aspiration, something. When it comes up, we immediately start moving to meet them.

Question: Why is it not possible to illuminate a little, to slightly open?

Answer: This is what the Creator is doing to people now. This is what the doctor who wrote this letter is telling us.

Comment: No, he is doing it out of pain.

My Response: Of course. And how else would you reveal it to a person?

Comment: It is as if suddenly it is revealed to a person that there is light and happiness ahead.

My Response: And he does not feel anything at the same time because he has no desire for this, no pain, no suffering.

All movie scenarios are also built on suffering. The screenwriter arouses suffering, aspirations, some kind of understanding in people. Lack, in short. And then, due to this deficiency, he fills them, and they really feel pleasure to the extent of the deficiency they felt.

Comment: Then give a person some advice on how to live now, at this moment of suffering taking place around him, or fear when he is at home! I keep asking about it all the time because basically this is what now preoccupies a person.

My Response: Stop sitting and crying. You must work hard to find out the Creator’s attitude toward you and the attitude that you should have toward Him. That is all.

Question: Can you, please tell us what the Creator is? What is He for me?

Answer: The Creator, it is very simple. The Creator is a force that contains absolutely everything that exists.

Question: This means that I have to feel that I am inside this force?

Answer: Of course. If you want to put it geographically or geometrically, then inside this force.

Question: And I should come into accord with it?

Answer: If you want to understand it and hope that you can affect it, then you must know it, study it. You must become aware and understand how it works with you. And you, as a small child, do not understand what it wants from you. You must learn what it wants from you. And then you will act in unison with your upper government.

Question: And what does it want from me?

Answer: It wants you to grow wiser, mature, begin to understand the Creator, interact correctly with Him.

Question: If I get to the point of starting to build good relations with other people around, is this a step?

Answer: Sure! This is a step forward.

The Creator is hidden so that you clearly understand how to tune in to Him. A huge number of opportunities have been created around you. Until you find the right contact with created beings on Earth, that is, treat inanimate, plant, animal, and human matter correctly, you will not be able to relate to the Creator correctly.

Question: And only suffering can push me to this? Only suffering and nothing else?

Answer: Suffering may be different. It may be small, big, sharp or dull. It all depends on you, to the extent that you yourself will tune yourself to establish a dialog with the Creator.

Question: What does compassion for a person mean for you?

Answer: It means to bring him to connection with the Creator. This is my purpose. I only regret that I cannot do this in full force. It is both that I am probably not capable of it, and people are not ready for it. And the Creator cannot reveal Himself more. This is the minimum level to which we must rise—today’s interaction with the Creator.

Comment: In some comments you are accused of welcoming the virus. The whole world is fighting the virus now, and suddenly you say: “No, let’s say thank you to it.”

My Response: If people want to get rid of the virus that causes them suffering, they must understand that they need to unite. That is all. Nothing else! Unite! And then the virus will just evaporate, fly away. Moreover, it will help our unity.

Question: The problem is that it is almost impossible for us, egoists, to unite; it is already a rhetorical question. How can we connect as we are?

Answer: We must ask the Creator for this. Of course, we have no strength. He purposely did not give us this strength! He says: “I have created evil! Do you want to turn it into good? Please, ask Me.”

Question: The last cry of the doctor who writes: “I realize my worthlessness on this earth, and I want to take my last breath helping others,” is this still some kind of a revelation for a man?

Answer: Of course. By this he is already redeeming a lot in himself.

Question: That is, if a person suddenly reveals a desire for his life to belong to others, is this a step toward the Creator?

Answer: Yes. It is precisely because he sees this suffering and wants to help people that such inclinations, such movements toward them, develop in him. This is a big correction.

It is for this purpose that we have been given suffering: so that we can correctly direct ourselves towards each other above them.
[265159]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/23/20

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Now as we start coming out of quarantine back to normal life: shops, services, and businesses start to open. And there is a feeling that a dark cloud called the coronavirus descended upon us and then vanished, as if nothing happened.

But in reality, this is a deceptive impression because the old life will never return. We will now find out and realize that there is no way back as “no man ever steps in the same river twice.”

This is why we will not be able to return to a life built on competition and endlessly increasing consumption. On the contrary, we operate within the system of nature even if we are not aware of this fact and do not feel it. Today’s systems of nature differ from those that existed before the coronavirus. They will not allow us to use our evil egoism to our detriment in the same form as we did before.

The virus has revealed that we are all connected and depend on each other. The pandemic has spread through the entire world and hit everybody. Our biological bodies are connected into one system that operates above these bodies and connects them with each other. That is why the illness that appeared in one place suddenly flareג up in another and then in another.

The virus strikes villages that have never had any contact with civilization. Where did it get there from? The system of nature operates here and after reaching a certain state, it releases this problem called the coronavirus into the world.

Therefore, we will not be able to return to the previous state even if we want to. It is impossible to go back. Such a thing has never happened in history! In relations between people, it is impossible to go back—only forward: either to a new life or to a new death.

The common trouble has changed society for the better; it obliges us to solidarity and mutual guarantee. We see how young people help the elderly who are at risk.

Now, with the return to normal life, all these positive changes and mutual care between people are at risk of disappearing if we do not listen to what nature wants to tell us, if we do not understand that we are all connected and determine each other’s future.

The entire globe and the entire universe in general are one integral system, and the state of each of its degrees, inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, depends on all the others.

Behind us is a long history of growth of our egoism, which brought us to the recognition of evil. In fact, we have already recognized this evil because no one is happy with their lives: neither the rich nor the poor, neither the smart nor the stupid, neither the strong nor the weak, neither the young nor the old.

As it is written: “Against your will you are born; against your will you live; and against your will you die.” Therefore, we need to make a total revision of our lives. The coronavirus helped us immensely by showing us that we are on this Earth as one human population and that we must take into account our dependence on each other.

We must build a society that is not based on competition where we we expend all our strength causing only harm to ourselves. I cannot associate with my good future by making someone else’s worse. It is time to move to a new state. We must, as humans, confront our evil nature and build a different, better degree above it.

Therefore, it is obvious that there can be no going back to the old days. Why should we go back? Did we live joyfully and happily? Were we at peace about the future of our children, giving birth to them for a life in such a world of mutual competition with danger lurking at every turn, in a world of lies and hatred?

Let’s imagine now, envision what reality we would like to come to rather than return to. What should a good life be like? Are we able to change ourselves?

One thing is clear: it is impossible to return to the old days. We have neither strength, money, or any reason to do so. In trying to do this, we will only waste our strength and nerves by getting involved in conflicts that would lead to World War III.

We have no other choice: if we are inside an integral nature, we must also organize ourselves as an integral society. The inanimate, vegetative, and animate degrees exist in one closed symbiosis. Humans break through these boundaries of nature. They go from the animate to the human degree and run rampant there in their egoism, destroy everything, and go from war to war, conflict to conflict.

Now we are at a very important, crucial point where we must stop developing egoistically and start learning and taking the implementation of the laws of nature upon ourselves. Human society must be a round, integral part of the integral nature, and take a step toward connection.

We allegedly used nature for our own benefit, but it was only for the benefit of our egoism. Look what we have done to this world, how dirty and ruined it is. We cannot go on like this. We do not have any other planet to live on except this one.

And now, having stopped production for two months, we see how nature instantly begins to revive: the air is cleaner, the atmosphere is restored, the ozone is restored, you can hear the joyous singing of birds, and forest animals walk the city streets.

They will try to bring us back to the past, to make us slaves of the system we created, but it will not work. Nature has its own engine of development, which will push us forward and will not allow us to roll back.

If we try to return to the old order, we will pay a very high price, we will experience a lot of suffering and misery, up to a third world war. There is no going back, no stepping twice into the same river. We must move forward to the image of an integral human being for each one individually and for all of us together as one creation.
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From KabTV’s “The New Life,” 5/5/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I tell fake news from real news?“

The real news is that the media publicizes and broadcasts the news in accordance with its owners’ funding sources’ agendas, i.e., it is all ultimately fake news.

When subscribers were the primary source of news media funding, then the media was indebted to them, i.e., to the people buying, reading and watching the news on offer.

However, when media proprietors became the primary source of news media funding, with the media relying on advertisers for its sustenance, then the media serves owner and advertiser interests, blurring any authenticity that once existed in news coverage.

Today, there is widespread awareness of fake news reporting. More and more people are questioning the genuineness and the interests behind the media they consume, yet out of a lack of options, continue consuming the news from the same sources.

Yet, instead of finger-pointing at media corruption for fake news, we would be wiser if we took a moment to examine ourselves, each and every one of us that makes up society.

The media is no more corrupt than its enveloping society, which we all make up. It is, rather, a product of society’s values, influences and behaviors.

Fake news awareness is thus insufficient to reach a stage where we will have real news.

Reaching real news depends on undergoing serious introspection and realizing first that the media is no better or worse than the society it resides within—a society driven by individuals each prioritizing personal well-being over the well-being of society.

Fake news and corrupt media then become viewed as reflections of who we really are—self-centered beings who each try to benefit ourselves in life as best as we can—and such self-analysis should lead us to a pressing question:

Is this the society we really want to live in?

If it is, then fake news and media corruption should not concern us.

However, if we aspire to a society that blossoms with happiness, kindness, support, encouragement and a generally positive atmosphere, then we would need to reset our social values—to prioritize benefiting others in society over benefiting ourselves.

Such a change is easier said than done, but it is indeed doable.

It requires regularly learning about our interdependence, how we are all interconnected and dependent on each other.

We would do well to understand our interdependence from many different angles, until it starts becoming a tangible sensation, where we feel that any move we make has an impact on others’ lives.

The coronavirus exemplified our interdependence in terms of our health, how one person’s health depends on the other person following health department orders, such as the maintenance of personal hygiene, keeping a certain distance from others and wearing masks in public.

According to our interdependence, one person’s indifference, lack of concern, divisive attitudes and antipathy spreads negatively to others, sparking a harmful chain reaction that negatively affects society.

However, if we each feel our interdependence, as if we are all parts of a greater whole, then our care for our common possession would let us refrain from harming it, and instead, we would each seek how to make it prosper and grow as much as possible.

Understanding that fake news and media corruption stem from the way we each prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others in society, we can then see that nothing effective comes from blaming the news and those directly behind it for being fake.

On the contrary, if we want to change the media, we need to change ourselves and make ourselves first want to benefit society over our personal benefit.

If we continue letting ourselves be held back from improving our relations, then we can expect more fake news and media corruption emerging together with myriad other problems filling our society.

Moreover, we would see no solution in sight.

Real news would thus come as a result of self-examination and improvement of human relations.

Negative exploitative attitudes are like viruses that we infect each other with on a daily basis.

Positive change thus requires a common effort to build a positively-connected society by developing mutually considerate and responsible relations.

If we make that slight calibration in our thinking, then we will experience a completely new and upgraded world.
Above Photo: “Xenophobia” by Gideon at Flickr.

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Question: If the Creator gave all of us a virus, then what is the point of asking Him to take it away or cure this virus? Is this not in direct disagreement with the perfection of the Creator’s governance in our world?

Answer: No. The Creator specifically created evil. It is said, “I created the will to receive and gave the upper light for its correction” so that we would learn to be like Him through the revelation of evil and the system of its correction.

We should never abandon this mission, otherwise we will remain as insects in this world and nothing more.
[263302]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabblah,” 3/15/20

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Question: We know that all actions are performed by the Creator, and this can be seen in the example of the coronavirus. To change and build new correct relationships, do we only need to want this internally?

Answer: No, that is not enough. To build the correct desire to reveal the virus, that is, to see our mistakes in communicating with each other, that is not enough.

We must also understand how to be interrelated, how to connect with each other. We should correctly calculate our communication, our connection, in accordance with our egoistic and altruistic desires, so that we do not harm each other in any way.

When we separate so that we do not just sit at home, do not get closer than two meters from each other, do not harm each other, and we understand that we must correctly interact with each other in our intentions, then we will be able to communicate again and build our relations on a new level.

I cannot say when it will happen, but I do not think it will be soon. Months, at least, should pass before humanity realizes the meaning of this virus. Today we can say that for the first time in the history of humanity, one force is acting on it, causing the same effect, and this says a lot.

In particular, we have come to an integral world and nature relates to us as to one, single, bad organism existing within it. Therefore, it breaks us and will crush us more and more severely if we do not obey its integral system.
[264499]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/5/20

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Question: Do you believe that even if, God forbid, a mere 15% of the world’s population would survive, that it would shift them even an iota from their egoism or individualism rather than make them bitter?

Answer: Not in any case, it would change nothing. I never implied that we should reduce the population. I never said that the coronavirus should be thinning out the masses, picking on the elderly or the sick, or anyone else. Not at all.

Our world, as Baal HaSulam wrote, can feed tens of billions of people. We know how much of Earth’s vast terrain is unsettled and uncultivated. When used correctly, this land can feed another 20 to 30 billion people. There is no need to destroy that.

If we reduce our crude intrusion into nature, the air and water will become clean and clear, fish will appear, animals will return that haven’t been seen for a long time. It all depends on our correct attitude to nature, not on our quantity.

Read what is published in the newspapers and on the Internet: there are various wild animals that are no longer afraid to be near us. It’s only been a month or two and we can see changes occurring in nature.

Nature is ready, it wants us to have the right attitude toward it and, thus, responds to it. I don’t think that it will take a long time for the changes to take place once man begins to understand, even to a small degree, his integral role in the system.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/5/20

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Question: In general, there are three main strategies for combating the coronavirus in the world.

The first is quarantine, when almost everything is closed, you cannot go outside, except to the doctor and to the supermarket.

The second is contact tracking, meaning extensive testing of all contact population groups, identification of patients, and their isolation from the total mass of people. This is a more expensive way.

And the third is the development of national [herd] immunity, when only risk groups, for example, people over 65 are isolated, and everyone else should get contaminated, and thus, develop immunity to the virus.
What technique is most effective for our further development as humanity?

Answer: I would generally put everyone in absolute quarantine, except for those who supply people with everything necessary. I would close everything, for example, for a month and discover from all human occupations, what we need.

For example, we need the police, teaching children, distributing food, etc., that is, the necessary minimum for the normal existence of mankind.

People should get used to the fact of communicating with each other in a very limited range and getting the food they need and not more than that. Children receive school education. Adults gain knowledge about how the world system works and how we should interact with nature. And then we’ll see what to do next, whether we want to expand the field of our activity at all. But first, let’s get used to this for half a year.

Question: That is, would you limit all egoistic connections and leave only the most necessary for the existence of our physical body?

Answer: Yes, as it is said in Kabbalah. Like an animal that never consumes what it does not need, but only what is needed at the moment.

Question: Would you stop supplying an excess of the necessary for now?

Answer: Not just temporarily, but in general. Then we would have a wonderful ecology: air, water, birds singing, everything would be fine. We would work a maximum of 2, 3, or 4 hours a day, and everyone would be happy. And all that is superfluous that could possibly be, we do not need at all.

Comment: But it is not easy to decide what is superfluous. That which is superfluous for you, for example, is not for me.

My Response: What is unnecessary for our animal organism is superfluous.

Question: And who decides this?

Answer: Let’s decide together. If you need to play sports, you can go jogging in the park. It’s not a problem. But what’s the use of flying planes from one end to the other end of the earth like crazy?

Question: And what’s wrong with traveling? I like to dress beautifully, I like to go to the theater. I don’t know if this is superfluous or not from your point of view?

Answer: Here it is necessary to draw a very clear, reasonable line that will not lead you to something else: “Ah, the theater? If the theater, then it should be La Scala. So, I have to fly to Italy. Ah, to Italy? Coronavirus. What will I do?” Therefore, let’s limit human life to normal, reasonable boundaries. How? Why do we exist? This question has to be resolved for us.

Question: That is, we will decide what is superfluous and what is not with respect to some higher goal?

Answer: And why do we exist? Only to watch a good movie, go to the theater, listen to pleasant music, sit in company with friends, have a drink and eat? This is all wonderful, but if you fill life with this and only this, then it ends with a zero result.

After this life there is so much more. Let us first reveal what exists after. I would do that. The fact that I can fill this life with all sorts of interesting things, that I understand, I already lived it. And now I’m wondering if there is anything else behind it. And if so, how can I continue this, for what, why?

Comment: Indeed, it is worth considering whether there is life after death, and how we can, being here in this body, prepare for it.

My Response: Not to prepare, but to see it! “Discover your future world in this world.” This is exactly what the science of Kabbalah teaches us. When you have a clear picture of your future life, you can decide how to fill this life.
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From KabTV’s “Coronavirus Is Changing Reality,” 3/26/20

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Medium published my new article “What Coronaphobia Tells Us about Human Nature”

Fear kills. As COVID-19 continues spreading and the appalling death toll in America and the world rises, the fear of the unknown is causing extreme anxiety — “coronaphobia.” US physicians are worried about additional deaths occurring as a large number of patients with life-threatening conditions have stopped seeking treatment at hospitals because they are afraid of contagion. There is much more to this new phenomenon than it seems. It reflects a fundamental change in human nature, a new perception of social interaction that the pandemic has triggered. We need to become more aware of this change in order to adjust to it properly.

Now is the time to realize that we are one interconnected and interdependent humanity and to strive to preserve the sense of integrality that the current crisis has taught us.

Our lifestyles and habits have changed dramatically, perhaps forever, as a consequence of the coronavirus. Those with obsessive compulsive disorder now see similar behaviors on a widespread level as people avoid personal contact, handshakes, touching stuff that is not theirs, and constantly wash their hands to prevent contracting the disease. Many are anxious to leave home and expose themselves to the non-sterile outside world unless they have no choice and are equipped with masks and all the necessary protective gear.

What manifests on the surface as an irrational fear of the illness is symptomatic of a shift in human perception in life priorities at a deeper level. Without question, treating the illness should not be delayed or avoided out of fear, but this recent human tendency to turn inward arises for a reason.

This huge world upheaval has opened up before our eyes. The epidemic has slowed our pace, forced us to stop and think twice about the relevance of our endless quest for pleasures. We have realized that the obsessive pursuit of indulgence at all cost is our real trap, since as soon as a desire is fulfilled, a new and bigger desire arises. Thus, we have constantly fallen into the same vicious cycle of emptiness and lack of meaning in our lives.

In our new reality, sitting at home has started to become a habit, a second nature. What was first perceived as being in prison, trapped in a stressful set-up, suddenly feels comfortable and safe. Of course, it is impossible to generalize and say everyone feels this way or relates to it. Nor is there an interest in pushing anyone in that direction, but the trend does indicate that a transformation in the way we relate to and live our lives has occurred.

Occupations have also changed compared to previous generations. We are rapidly moving our jobs into the virtual space — an easy way to connect with people without physical and geographic boundaries. Even though we are still used to physical contact, we are increasingly realizing that the benefits of working from home pay off in many ways — more quality time with the family, fewer long and tiring commutes, and financial savings in lower office overhead costs.

However, the stage we are now in is not our final destination. The virtual space is only a way station in the transition from existence in the physical world to a more inner, introspective world. The sooner we begin to feel ourselves as an integral part of a global virtual space, the deeper our internal connection will be. That kind of connection refers to the unity of the hearts which is not measured by the number of physical interactions we have in the corporeal world.

In a nutshell, the virtual reality the pandemic has moved us toward is the preparation for the establishment of a more internal, integral society, an integral connection. In this new world, we will need to learn to connect above our differences, and create meaningful connections alongside engaging in business and livelihood activities.

This is the stage that the human race needs to implement now. We need to grasp the elements and means of this new reality and learn to use them to foster better human relations. Now is the time to realize that we are one interconnected and interdependent humanity and to strive to preserve the sense of integrality that the current crisis has taught us.

Our only requirement is to strengthen our inner connection to create an integral society between us that is based on the principle of “love covers all crimes,” as our sages wrote. Such an environment will dispel all phobias, uncertainty and anxiety about the future.
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