Comment: According to a recent survey in France, about 60% of French citizens believe that the Jews are partly responsible for the growing anti-Semitism in France. 56% believe that the Jews are very influential and that they are richer than the average Frenchman; 40% say that their presence in the media is exaggerated and 13% claim that there are too many Jews in France. Generally speaking, the French don’t like the Jews.

Answer: Of course, that’s the way it has always been. The French dislike the Jews more than all other nations. But now the inclination toward anti-Semitism will grow all over the world because the world has reached a state in which it is obliged to correct itself and this cannot be delayed any longer. The general global egoism cannot develop any further, and so it begins to devour itself. And consequently more and more hatred is manifested.

People will suffer from the growing egoism and will not find a way to get rid of it. They will instinctively feel that the Jews have the key for the correction, but are not fulfilling their mission. Therefore along with the growing egoism, the subconscious hatred toward the Jews will grow, indicating that they are responsible for everything. The truth is that they are to blame, not for the sufferings, but for the fact that they don’t heal humanity of their sufferings.

Comment: But the Jews themselves don’t really understand that.

Answer: The Jews don’t understand that and neither do the nations of the world.

Question: So what do we want of the Jews?!

Answer: Nothing. We want Kabbalists who understand the essence of egoism to explain it as soon as possible to everyone, even to those who don’t want to hear. We have to go out and cry out on every street corner, everywhere, and in every possible way, through the media, in every language, all over the world, both to Jews and to the peoples of the world.

This is the only way that we can make people gradually listen to us. There will be more and more blows; we will feel bad and they will feel bad, and eventually everyone will listen to why the nations of the world hate the Jews, and especially the Jews will hear why the nations of the world hate us.

Then the Jews will begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and will unite, setting an example for the other nations of the world, which will gladly begin to unite around the Jews. It is like sourdough that you add to dough which begins to ferment. And the Jewish people perform the role of the sourdough. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah says and we cannot escape it.

But now the starter is not performing its function, and so people feel natural hatred towards us. When one of the nations calls out to a Jew: “I hate you and I will kill you,” they mean” just show us how to connect and unite and we will follow you.”

Question: Why do the people of the world believe that the reason for their troubles is the lack of connection between the Jews?

Answer: It is instinctive; they don’t actually know why and how.

Question: What is the magical thing?

Answer: The source of power is in this connection, the wellbeing of the whole world, because it is actually in the connection between them, between all the parts that are opposite from creation, especially on the highest level, on the human level, that there is a great force that will bring goodness, warmth, and wellbeing to our world. This connection reveals perfection and eternity.

The Jews have to be the first to unite and set an example for the whole world that demands it from them. This is exactly what we Kabbalists have to tell the whole world. We should show, teach, and set an example, which means to be Light unto the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/3/16

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New Life 715 – The Children Of Israel In Egypt, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How does Egypt represent a person’s ego? How do the figures in the story about the exodus from Egypt illustrate forces that operate in a person, and what is the analogy between the slavery in Egypt and the crisis the world is undergoing today?

The story of the exodus from Egypt in its literary sense is well known all over the world, why is unclear. However, if we wish to penetrate the inner meaning of this story and understand the forces that build the figures in it, we must get away from the simple description of the characters in the story. Our world is managed in the same way that different forces create the display on a computer screen. Reality is made of two forces: the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, the Creator and the created being.

The Creator’s hand turns the images from inside, and it also motivates Batya to pull Moses out of the Nile. Moses symbolizes a special force that should correct all of the other desires that are in the attribute of receiving and take them out of Egypt, which symbolizes the ego. Moses was raised as a prince in Pharaoh’s home, egoistic system of healthy capitalism where everyone cares only about himself and everything revolves around money.

Money (Kesef) represents the ability to cover (Kisuf) (same root in Hebrew), the ability to pay for the fulfillment of my desire, while Egypt symbolizes the same dream that we have in our world today. Today, we can no longer manage our world in this way because it is against the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, and so we must advance to a system in which everyone examines what he can give to others and not receive.

When the children of Israel fled from Egypt, it was because they did not want to live according to their lust for money, according to the desire to receive, and felt that it meant death for them. The alternative is to live in love, not in pride, and this is what Moses represents.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 715 – The Children Of Israel In Egypt, Part 1,” 4/14/16

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My article “Passover – a chance to pass over” was published recently in The Jerusalem Post, an English language news source for Jews.

“Passover – A Chance to Pass Over”

Soon, as we do every year, we will be seated once again around the Seder table.

According to the Jewish calendar, Passover is actually the beginning of the year. Officially, the year begins on Rosh Hashanah, but the Jewish calendar also has a deeper, hidden level, which describes our internal, spiritual development.

The Jewish nation is a special one. It was formed not by biological kinship or geographical proximity, but by adherence to an idea—the idea of unity! We became a nation only when we agreed to live “as one man with one heart,” and we were given the task to be “a light unto nations” when we pledged to love our neighbors as ourselves. And Passover is where it all began.

Until Moses was born, the people of Israel were very happy in Egypt. They were prosperous and wealthy, and enjoyed life’s amenities of “pots of meat” and “bread to the full” (Exodus, 16:3). But material contentment can only take us so far. It is human nature that once we have what we want we begin to want something else, something higher. At that point we begin to seek delight in human connection.

That moment of beginning is the birth of Moses—an aspiration for brotherhood and connection. It has existed all along, maturing in the house of Pharaoh and enjoying the material pleasures life has to offer until it had its fill.

At that moment begins the exile in Egypt. Pharaoh, our egoism, cannot surrender to such “lofty” ideas as brotherhood, connection, and mutual responsibility. It loathes and despises them.

And yet, the more the children of Israel developed as individuals and as a society, the more they felt that unity was the next step, a must happen scenario. The children of Israel went through a process similar to the one happening today, where we are realizing that our happiness, health, and general well-being depend on the quality of our social relations. Pharaoh did not want to torture the children of Israel; he simply wanted them to continue to cater to him, namely the ego, rather than to follow Moses, meaning aim for brotherhood and mutual care. And when they wouldn’t go along, he became the vicious king we know from the story.

Our forefathers insisted on their unity and eventually won. They united at the foot of Mt. Sinai and received the law, whose essence the Holy SHLAH expresses by these few words: “Love is the commandment on which the entire Torah stands: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The children of Israel carefully cleared themselves of hametz [leaven], the self-centeredness within them, and passed over from egoism to brotherhood until they became a nation bound together and united by the vision of love of others.

Today, as we are waking up from the American Dream to the reality that we cannot base our societies on competition and isolation, we are beginning to feel more and more like the children of Israel in exile. Until now Egypt was quite fun, but now it is becoming hostile and feels more and more like exile.

Now is the time to rekindle our brotherhood and love of others and pass over once again. It is the beginning of a new year, a new era in our society. It is time to shift to a new paradigm of relationships.

The “Me, me, me” culture has exhausted itself because we are simply not happy being confined to our separate shells. In order to be happy, we, the descendants of the children of Israel, must move like our forefathers from egoism to brotherhood and mutual responsibility.

Imagine the life we will have when we care for one another. No one will have to struggle through life’s trials because everyone will help out. And likewise, we will enjoy helping others. And as each of us chips in for our neighbors, our ties will strengthen and create a bond that will build a society based on friendship, warmth, and unity. “Love your neighbor as yourself” will stop being a cliché, and will become what it was always meant to be—our reality.

Recently there have been numerous references in the press to the disunity of the Jewish community. It is a good sign. It shows that we are beginning to see fragmentation and alienation as the root of our problems. We will always have diversity, but rather than fear it, we should embrace it! The more diverse we are, the more our brotherhood will grow, as long as we value unity above all else.

And there is another bonus. As we unite above our differences we will present a model of a prosperous community that thrives because of its diversity, rather than despite it. This is something that the world needs desperately today. We can offer it. We had it when we came out of Egypt, and we can reignite it now and share it with the world. In this we can become “a light unto nations,” a beacon of hope for the world.

This Passover, let us pass over from alienation to brotherhood, from indifference to mutual responsibility. In short, let us all come out of Egypt, together.
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New Life 555 – Life In Perpetual War
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

After so much suffering it’s time to ask why is this happening to us? After all, there is nothing accidental in nature.

After not finding secular and religious answers, we understand that the answers are found in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Peace depends only on us; it doesn’t depend on any other factor. Only we can bring a positive force into the world.

Two forces operate in this world, positive and negative, give and take. The evil force constantly grows by itself. Adding the positive force hidden in nature requires work only the Jews can perform.

In ancient Babylon, our father Abraham discovered a method for doing this, the method of love, “Love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). Thousands gathered around him, and that is how the people of Israel were created, living according to: “What is hateful to you, don’t do to your friend” (Talmud Babyli Shabbat 31a), and “You shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

If we want to build the people of Israel in the land of Israel, it is up to us to return to this spiritual source. The systems that oppose Israel will stop only when we understand that the key to world happiness is in our hands, the positive force is in our hands. If we fight for connection between us, each one against his ego, we will be spared from external wars.

Like soldiers, we are strong, we are ready for self-sacrifice. The problem is that it is not clear to us what our destiny as a people is. If we fight with the inner enemy, with the negative force that separates us, the external enemy will disappear.

We see that today people are leaving the country; it is not clear to them what the point of their living here is, in this nation with all of its problems. It is up to us to reveal the positive force that is concealed in nature that will connect us. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us this method.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 555 – Life In Perpetual War,” 4/16/15

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New Life 554 – Holidays And Festivals: The New Israeli
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is the new Israeli different from the Sabra image that was built after the establishment of the nation? How does his activity on behalf of connection among the people change them for the better and how should his desire for love of the people and the homeland be directed?

The Sabra image helped us in building the nation. After that, western culture came and the dream faded. A generation grew up focusing on itself and was less interested in the homeland.

Today, inner gentleness has reawakened, people want spiritual connection. A sensation of emptiness indicates this. Materialism no longer fulfills us.

The next Israeli hero will be a person who understands that prosperity and happiness comes from connection with others.

When the nation was established we were forced to connect in order to survive. Today, emptiness pushes us to connect. After all the materialistic successes, emptiness is eating us from the inside. We lack warmth, we lack connection.

When we begin to build connection and good relationships between us in Israel, nobody will consider leaving the country, emigrating to some other place. Connection will deeply fulfill a person from within and elevate him to a new level of existence.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 554 – Holidays And Festivals: The New Israeli,” 4/14/15

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Question: Within various writings in the Bible there is information according to which before the deluge, giants and titans dominated the Earth. Is this true?

Answer: The term “titans” refers to great people, not in size but spiritual giants. There were titans and giants before the deluge. They attained the upper world within the ego, which could imagine the spiritual level on an egoistic level, which is the smallest, negligible level.

They were not great egoists. But specifically thanks to their having negligible ego, they could move with great ease through all the properties and all the strata of the spiritual world. So they were called titans.
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New Life 552 – A New Israeli Vision
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Why were all the difficult events that have happened to the Jewish people necessary? What is the destiny of the people of Israel, and how is it possible to transform the nation of Israel into a model for the whole world?

In order to understand where Israel is heading, there is a need for our inner Torah, the wisdom of Kabbalah. Our social vision should be adjusted to what is defined in the program of development in nature….

Today, on the one hand, a need for connection has been revealed, and on the other hand, there is a lack of desire for connection. Each one is separate. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches how to bring a positive energy into our lives and create a balance between the negative and the positive.

An independent Israel is a nation that will lead humanity to true independence and everything that is good.

In the Israel of tomorrow, a person will not feel alone; he will be connected to others. He will love like a mother loves and is concerned about her children. A person will not feel isolated because he will be enveloped by warmth and love. And this will be what is most pleasant in the world.

From a social aspect, we will begin to feel how corners become rounded. Generosity, consideration, and mutuality will be revealed. Different opinions will exist as plus and minus, with mutual acceptance, because above everything there will be love. Israel will be a nation that balances the two forces of good and evil and provides an example for the whole world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 552 – A New Israeli Vision,” 4/12/15

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Question: It was reported that pro-Islamic and pro-Palestinian organizations are planning a massive cyber-attack on Israel. They are planning to break into the email boxes of Internet users, attack Facebook, and so on.

Answer: I call on them to attack me and steal from me everything that is written on our site and disseminate it. But seriously, all of the wars today are in virtual space. I don’t understand what these organizations are arming themselves against in the first place.

Question: What if we could spread our information this way?

Answer: The point is that there is a person to whom you send the information who, being trapped by his ego, says, “I don’t want to.”

What’s the point in giving him information about the need to unite? You will not be able to give him anything unless he is given a good spanking and forced to open his mouth from above, but all of this is still ahead of us. It is probably impossible to manage it without blows.

Pesach (Passover) is before us now. Passover tells us about a person who begins to move toward freedom and continues to evolve only after he has undergone terrible afflictions and feels that he must attain the truth. Therefore, being in Egypt is essential.

A person must undergo all of the ten plagues of Egypt and reach the state in which he must exit them and attain the right goal that actually is determined while being in exile in Egypt. Egypt symbolizes our ego and how we suffer from it, and the ten plagues of Egypt are ten serious blows to the ego, which means to our desires, to a comfortable bourgeoisie life, to domination, glory, knowledge, pleasures, and so forth.

The exile in Egypt, the terrible suffering, helps us break away from this type of life, and then we begin to feel that they are worthless, meaningless, hopeless, and useless. Neither drugs nor wealth can help us—nothing! It is also impossible to die, and all that we have left is this mortal existence that is much worse than death.

Then, a person decides that he is ready to do anything in order to find the truth. It is actually from this state that he yearns for the truth, so exodus from Egypt is exodus from spiritual exile.

Question: Can a person hear the message of Kabbalists and avoid such extreme states? Otherwise, what are we disseminating this information for?

Answer: We are disseminating information so that people would be able to reduce their corporeal suffering, which can become very great before they want to get rid of them, so that they could determine as quickly as possible that egoism is bad and that a person should escape it, but only toward the right goal.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/7/16

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New Life #369 – The Heroes Of The Bible: Moses
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

What is Moses’ heroism? How does he lead the people of Israel toward fulfilling the connection and unity between them, and how is this historical story related to our life today?

Moses was raised as a prince at Pharaoh’s palace until the age of 40. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew man, his point in the heart was awakened. The killing of the Egyptian symbolizes Moses’ reluctance to be part of the Egyptian culture, values, and idols.

Staying at Jethro’s home is an intermediate stop before the next 40 years. Moses’ heroism is in accepting the mission he was given and not evading it. Moses serves Israel; he takes them out of Egypt and brings them the Torah, which is all about “love thy friend as thyself.”

Everyone gets a chance to be like Moses during his lifetime, but we evade it. To come out of Egypt, out of the house of Pharaoh, means becoming free of the domination of the ego and coming out to the love of others.

Moses demands and receives powers from God. Anyone who wants to help others advance receives the powers to do so. Egypt is the egoistic force; Jethro is wisdom in understanding the ego. The giving of the Torah is receiving the method to correct it. Today heroes are those who can lead our society and free it from being slaves to our egoism.

It is a pity to wait for the 10 plagues today. It is better to advance on our own toward connection, toward brotherly love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #369 – The Heroes Of The Bible: Moses,” 5/13/14

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Opinion (timesofisrael.com): “Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that non-Jews should not live in the Land of Israel if they do not abide by a set of seven laws mandated by Judaism.

“’According to Jewish law, gentiles should not live in the Land of Israel,’ Yosef said Saturday in a sermon. ‘If a gentile does not agree to take on the seven Noahide Laws, we should send him to Saudi Arabia. When the true and complete redemption arrives, that is what we will do.’

“The only reason non-Jews were still allowed to live in the Jewish state was the fact that the Messiah had yet to arrive, he said. ‘If our hand were firm, if we had the power to rule, that’s what we should do. But the thing is, our hand is not firm, and we are waiting for the Messiah,’ he added.

“Yosef added that gentiles who do agree to take on the Noahide Laws — a basic moral code that includes prohibitions on denying the existence of God, blasphemy, murder, illicit sexual relations, theft, and eating from a live animal, as well as a requirement to instate a legal system — will be allowed to remain in the land and fulfill roles reserved for gentiles in the service of Jews.”

My Comment: That’s right, that is even said in the Torah, but the meaning of the “Land of Israel” is our corrected ego, a desire of love for everyone, as called for in the entire Torah: “Love thy neighbor, the great rule of the Torah.”

There is no place for all other desires in the corrected desire, they must be removed from it, meaning that they have become corrected with a feeling of absolute love—a condition called complete deliverance (of selfishness), and a person must actively wait for this. He must wait for the influence of a unique power on him, which corrects all of the egoism in a person. This is called the Messiah—from the word “pulling out,” extracting a person from his ego.

To the degree that the ego is corrected, a person feels a desire for bestowal and love in its corrected part, which is called the upper world. The full correction of the ego is called the attainment of the “Garden of Eden” (paradise, heaven). Therefore love toward others is the general law of the Torah.
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