The Times of Israel published my new article “Tikkun Olam and the Falsehood of Social Justice”

Always around the holiday of Shavuot (aka Feast of Weeks), we Jews discuss the concept of Tikkun Olam (lit. “correction of the world”). The prevailing understanding of Tikkun Olam is that the term speaks of the obligation of Jews to pursue social justice, lead an ethical life, and support equal rights to the underprivileged and minorities. These are all worthy goals, and the right for equality is a given for every human being. Nevertheless, placing the correction of the world on these values guarantees that the world will never be corrected, and below I will explain why.

At the foot of Mt. Sinai, when the Jews received the Torah—the code of law by which they lived—they received it only because they had met the precondition to be, even if only for that movement, “as one man with one heart.” That is, for one moment, they were in such absolute love for one another that they became as one person. Subsequently, they received their code of law which was meant to help them maintain that state of mutual love. This is why Rabbi Akiva, whose disciples gave us the texts that form the basis of our nation, taught that the overall rule of the Torah is that one sentence, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Immediately after Israel received the Torah, they were tasked with passing on what they had achieved. In other words, they became a nation in order to be “a light unto nations,” spreading unity and mutual love to the rest of the nations.

But two thousand years ago, we fell into such depths of mutual hatred that we did not even need a reason to hate one another. This unfounded hatred brought upon us not only the destruction of the Temple and the loss of sovereignty, but also the permanent loathing and contempt of the nations. That loathing, whose root is our unfounded loathing for our brothers, brought upon us countless cataclysms since then, the most catastrophic of which is, of course, the Holocaust.

Nevertheless, we do not learn. We do everything to avoid loving one another, and turn instead to surrogates such as social justice and morals. Yet, as we can see, there is no social justice and there is no moral anywhere. Values can’t replace mutual love, which is what the nations truly want from us: to shine for them the light of unity.

If we loved each other, we would not need to promote social justice, since lovers do not behave unjustly to each other. We would not need to speak of morals since lovers do not behave immorally toward their loved ones. Ethics would not be an issue since there are no such things as exploitation or mistreatment among people who genuinely care for one another.

A mother does not need moral codes when she tends to her baby. Her love directs her and she always works with her child’s best interest in mind. Where you find laws, you won’t find love.

And as if we haven’t suffered enough, we still don’t want to love each other. We gladly bond with other faiths and practices, but when it comes to loving people of our own nation, we do not even speak of social justice, let alone love.

In relating so disparagingly toward our coreligionists, we shun the concept of being a light unto nations. We were, are, and always will be at the center of the world’s attention. Subconsciously, people are and always will expect us to project the light of brotherly love to the nations. But what we project is mutual derision and hate. When that is the case, no nation will love us, however hard we try to win its favor. Until we do our duty and cultivate love among ourselves, we will not fulfill the task for which we were given nationhood on the first Shavuot, at the foot of Mt. Sinai. And therefore, the nations will not love us.

So this year, I propose that we focus less on being morally just and ethical, and more, much more, on loving one another. Let’s dare, for once, to rise above our differences, avoid judging and patronizing, condemning and ridiculing. Instead, let’s stay who we are and unite above it. Let’s at least think about it. After all, Rabbi Akiva did not leave us a legacy of ethics, but a legacy of love, so let’s try to do what this teacher of our nation taught, and see what happens.
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New Life 1221 – The Exodus From Egypt In The Coronavirus Era
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

The entire developmental process that humanity is going through is intended to bring us closer to an attitude of mutual love, connection, and integrality. Like the plagues of Egypt, the coronavirus is helping humanity to stop harming each other and nature. It is causing us to sit at home with time to think about the essence of life. We must rise above our differences and become like God: the general, integral power of nature that is working behind the scenes and moves everyone. The miracle of the Exodus from Egypt occurs when we arouse God to connect among us. At the peak of our development we will be free people, liberated from slavery to the ego, and connected to love within a single system.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1221 – The Exodus From Egypt In The Coronavirus Era,” 4/7/20

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New Life 1220 – Coronavirus, Passover, Night Of Exile Or Isolation Night?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

Passover is a festival of freedom from our egoism. There is nothing to celebrate since we are not connected, we have not left Egypt, and we remain in our egos. The coronavirus has imprisoned us in our homes to show us our true situation: we are separated in our hearts. We are isolated because we have elevated the ego, which is called Pharaoh, and bow down only to it. It is no longer appropriate to fulfill ourselves without taking anyone else into account. We must open our hearts, move toward a state of love between us, and direct ourselves straight to the power of divinity. The moment the power of connection is discovered, we will feel all who come into the world in our hearts.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1220 – Coronavirus, Passover, Night Of Exile Or Isolation Night?” 4/2/20

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Question: Holidays symbolize a chain of spiritual actions in which a person corrects a certain layer of egoism and then starts everything from the beginning to correct the next layer?

Answer: And this happens on every degree and every day.

All this happens to us when we start revealing the upper world and working on ourselves toward bestowal and love, then we attain all these degrees that in our world are interpreted in such an earthy, mundane way as holidays.
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From Kab TV’s “The Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/29/2019

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/29/20

Israel’s Independence Day often invokes reflections on the meaning of independence and whether we are truly independent. Evidently, we are not independent economically. In a globalized world, no country is independent, much less a country whose economy relies so heavily on export and import. Israel is also not independent in the military sense or in the diplomatic sense, since we are dependent on America’s support in both these aspects.

Yet, these three facets of our nationhood have never been the decisive factor in our being. Our strength was never in our economic, military, or diplomatic fortitude, but in our unity! The Jewish people formed when Abraham united people from all over the Fertile Crescent around the principle of love above all differences. The ancient Hebrews achieved independence from their innate hatred of each other and formed a nation that was based on love of others regardless of background, ethnicity, or faith. Only when Israel achieved this level of union and pledged to be “as one man with one heart” they were declared a nation. When Israel abandoned unity, they were exiled from the land of Israel.

Now that we are beginning our 73rd year of renewed sovereignty, I hope that this will be the year when we finally achieve true independence—from hating one another. Today, our very lives depend on this.

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We are now quarantined in our homes, where should we go after exiting this Egypt? First, we need to understand exactly why we are doing this and where we are going. The way out of Egypt is the way out of egoism into love between us. We are in Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh, our common egoism, which keeps us all in slavery and sets us up against each other. We want to come out of this unfounded hatred and turn face to face to one another with open hearts.

This should be revealed as mutual love, which is called the exodus from Egypt to the land of Israel, to the desire directed straight to the Creator, to the higher power of love.

Passover is a holiday of liberation from the angel of death, from our egoism. We imagine liberation as going back to the former pre-coronavirus life so that we can finally leave the house, go to a restaurant, and take a walk along the seashore or in the park. This is how we see freedom and free people.

The virus is showing us how we are not free and that we are immersed in our egoism. The coronavirus says: “Do not leave home! If you are locked within your egoism, you will be locked in your material life in the same way.” The virus shows us the true picture, our slavish dependence on the desire to fill ourselves, on Pharaoh. We meekly obey all the demands of our egoism and do not even realize it. Egoism dominates our thoughts and desires; this is called slavery.

“We were slaves in Egypt”—slaves of our selfishness, our desire to fill ourselves without thinking of others. But we are in the same integral system with all the people of this world, with all the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and people. And if my actions concern only my own personal desires, this means I work for Pharaoh. And to think about everyone else means to work correctly with respect to nature, the Creator. And then nothing, no viruses, can harm us.

During the Passover meal, it is a tradition to set a glass of wine for the guest of honor, the prophet Elijah. There was a joke this Passover that this time we did not invite the prophet Elijah so as not to infect him with the virus because he is in the at-risk group due to his age. So should we expect the prophet Elijah or not? Elijah comes to announce that the Messiah is coming. The Mashiach (Messiah in Hebrew) is the force that draws us out of our egoism, that is, from all misfortunes, and brings us to the state of universal bestowal and love, which is the Creator, and to the desire where we are all connected with one another and with the higher force of nature. It is a message that the prophet Elijah brings to us.

That is, we are not waiting for a person, but a special force that will lead us to love. Love means that I treat others as myself and even better. We have been waiting for the prophet Elijah for so many years, and he still has not come. But we have never waited for the true Elijah. Did we ever want to love someone? We expected that Elijah would bring us money, a new car, a new house, a private plane; everyone had their own interpretation. We were waiting for the wrong Elijah!

Elijah is the highest force that will bring us to such a strong unification, right up to love, that we will feel not only as one nation, but as one body and one desire and will feel the Creator within us, as it is said: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

The Creator is the power of bestowal and love, not some kind of material image. This power of love must dwell within us, between us. This is what we call the revelation of the prophet Elijah, liberation, exit from Egypt, and the true end of correction. Then we will feel the whole nation as one big family. To do this, you do not need to leave your house. The force of Elijah, the power of unity, acts above of all walls and borders. We will suddenly feel this whole world as transparent, without any partitions between rooms, houses, and parts of the universe. Everything will be felt as one whole where everyone is in connection with others and each person includes everyone within oneself. After all, every person is a small world. This is how we will feel the whole reality and within it the Creator.

Therefore, in this Passover, our main effort is to concentrate on the power of love from the prophet Elijah so that it would clothe and connect us with the whole world in one mutual embrace, which will lead us to the real exodus from Egypt.
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From KabTV’s “New Life – 1220” 4/2/20

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Usually in Passover, especially during the holiday Seder [ceremonial dinner], there is a feeling of a common holiday throughout Israel, among all people, in all families. But this year, Passover feels different, like a dull, quarantine cloud descended on us and locked us in our homes.
We used to get ready for a Passover meal with the whole big family, and suddenly everyone had to stay at home.

But the fact is that we ourselves built this state. The coronavirus is just a way to uncover the truth and show our separation: as long as we are not one people, we do not sit at the same table and do not want to leave our Egypt today.

This year, the Seder just corresponded to the structure of the people of Israel, in which there is no unity. We did not leave Egypt, and therefore we have nothing to celebrate. We need to think about why we are in this state. Have we already left Egypt, our egoistic desire? Have we become one people of the Creator?

We think that this Passover is not real because we do not meet as usual with the whole family, with grandfather and grandmother. But just this Passover is real because it shows us how much we are not with our people.

The problem is not in the Passover Seder, but with the way we are every day, not in the relations within the family, but much wider throughout the entire Israeli society. All year we do not behave as one united people, and, accordingly, now we are forced to sit during Pesach alone at home.

We have developed to the point where it is not enough to sit with grandparents and celebrate the events that took place 3,500 years ago. The time has come to understand that we have not left Egypt.

The way out of Egypt is the way out of our egoism, a state in which we truly become united as one people, as one man with one heart and receive the Torah, the power that is revealed between us and binds us as one special people of Israel.

But we have none of this. And then a special symbol appears called coronavirus and explains to us where we are: We have not left Egypt, but live inside a huge egoism, even stronger than in other nations. We do not even have the right to be called Israel because it means directly to the Creator (Yashar-Kel), and we do not strive for the power of bestowal, for mutual love and unity.

So, we are sent to sit alone, without a grandmother, and think why we are alone and why quarantine is declared. The virus comes specifically to explain to us who we are and that we do not really relate to the Passover holiday and to the right to be called Jews who left Egypt.

Passover is celebrated in memory of the exodus from Egypt, but we have nothing to remember. Therefore, we are sitting at home with our immediate family, as before leaving Egypt, and we think what needs to be done to get out of it. This is only the night of the exodus from Egypt, but not the exit itself.

The quarantine shows that egoism left us alone in the desert: without relatives, friends, or our nation. Passover just symbolizes the desire to get out of this loneliness and connect with others as one man with one heart.

What is the difference between this night and all other nights? Not that everyone sits alone in his house, but because now we understand why we are sitting alone on this festive evening. And it is also different in that we finally thought about: Are we ready to leave Egypt? You have to face it.

Egypt is our selfishness, mutual hatred, competition. This is the essence of Passover night—it is night, but in an organized manner (seder) it prepares us to exit our egoism in the land of Israel (Yashar-Kel), that is, to a higher power, to bestowal and love. The Creator is the power of love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life-1220” 4/2/20

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Fasting—Restriction Of The Egoism

Question: During the second Babylonian exile, the Persians conquered Babylon and created a vast Persian Empire. It is interesting to know what happened to the Jewish people there.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, #144, “There Is a Certain People”: “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.” Haman said that in his view, we will succeed in destroying the Jews because they are separated from one another; hence, our force against them will certainly prevail, as it causes separation between man and God. And the Creator will not help them anyway, since they are separated from Him.

Haman, the embodiment of the egoistic force, put everyone on their knees except Mordechai. Mordechai declared that he was Yehudi [Jewish], from the word Yichud [unity/union], meaning striving to unite with the Creator, and thus refused to obey Haman. Enraged, Haman decided to destroy all the Jews.

Then Queen Esther asks everyone to fast, and the Creator helps them and they win.

What is fasting? And how is it related to connection or separation?

Answer: Fasting is a certain rejection of all the values that people are used to in their lives. This is not the same as on the corporeal level: I am fasting today, so I am refusing to eat or drink.

Fasting means that everything that represents my life becomes absolutely prohibited for me. I see it as completely unnecessary, non-existent; I refuse everything I used to live by, all the values that I held high; I completely distance myself from my previous ideals. I re-evaluate my whole life.

During this time, I must transition to a completely new level of existence. If I were used to enjoying life and all it has to offer, now it is to the contrary, I immerse myself into internal scrutiny: Who am I, what is all this for, etc.? Meaning, I restrict my egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19

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Question: What is the difference between the Kabbalistic explanation of our world and the Passover holiday from the ordinary opinions?

Answer: There are several levels of explanation of existence, its creation, development, goal, and the human’s task in it. For example, we can say the Passover holiday is:

1. the historical period of slavery of the people in Egypt,
2. about the “slavery” of man in his egoism, Egypt, Pharaoh,
3. about the development of creation, desire, under the influence of the Creator, light, and its absence, under the influence of darkness, Egypt, Pharaoh.

At different levels you can also say it is about:

1. the mechanical performance of rituals, which are commonly called commandments,
2. the psychological fulfillment of the instruction “love your neighbor as yourself,” as a general(klal) instruction of the Creator, which includes all other instructions, as stated in the Torah: “Love your neighbor is the general law of the Torah,”
3. the Kabbalistic effect of the upper light on the worlds and through them on the souls that go through the stages of their spiritual development, correction.

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This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we will not be able to hold the Passover Seder with a thousand guests like we have in previous years. I hope this is very similar to the state of the people of Israel when they left Egypt, which was also in darkness and while disconnected from each other.

They understood that they needed to connect, but they still did not find the strength in themselves for this. And we are in the same state and I really hope that because everyone is sitting in their corner, each will feel that an upper force has divided us and crushed us. We are far apart and do not feel each other.

The virus acts to explain to us who we really are so that we can rise above this virus with the help of the upper force. The Creator will unite and correct us, and we will break ahead to the free land, free from our egoistic desire. There we will unite all together with the Creator in one merger: Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one. Let’s hope this happens.

The external world and internal properties are becoming closer to each other: men, women, children—all come out of Egypt. I really hope that we will do it tonight. Prepare yourself internally for the exodus.

And it doesn’t matter what we have on the table, the main thing is in our hearts: how much we want to get out of our egoism, rise above it, and join what we pulled out of Egypt so we will collect our bright soul. I wish you a happy Passover, that is, a great way out of selfishness together.
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From the 2^nd part of the Dily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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