The weekly section of the Torah, “BeHukotai,” is very relevant to our times. It says that, if we follow the Creator’s laws, we will be happy, and, if we don’t, we will be punished. But these words refer to a nation or person who is on a certain level of development and from whom something already can be demanded.

Therefore, the Torah says that it is only from a certain point in a person’s development that a bilateral relationship with the Creator begins. It is as if the Creator turns to him and says, “You are already big enough to hear Me. Until now, I always cared for you, showed you, told you, and took upon Myself everything that you did wrong, corrected things a little, and led you to positive outcomes. But now we gradually must become partners. Therefore, you must keep My laws, and accordingly, I will make room for you in the leadership system.”

Question: You keep calling the nation of Israel to wake up now, but they are still babies. So, why do you turn to them?

Answer: The point is that they must wake up since they contain Reshimot (reminiscences) that must bring them to the recognition and realization that they have a special place in the world. They, at least, must hear this!

All the other nations are on the level of babies and don’t owe anyone anything. They will go wherever they are led. They want everything to be good. If we lead them to goodness, they feel that internally and follow us. If not, they cry and blame us for all their troubles, and it is indeed so.

But we must understand that, at the moment, we are opposite and in contrast to the upper law of love, that we prefer to draw away from it and evade our participation in the process that will bring all the nations of the world to the best possible state.

Imagine how it looks from the side? Complete disrespect of the Creator and of all of humanity! We only respect ourselves. I feel good at the moment, so I can sit and do nothing.

Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that all the negativity comes to the world only for the sake of the Jews and because of the Jews. And we do not know that at the moment the nations of the world suffer and so does the Creator, metaphorically. This great Kabbalist speaks about that like the biggest anti-Semite because we are not fulfilling our role and don’t ascend to a level called the nation of Israel. This is the meaning of all the laws in the Torah.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/12/14

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The great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, considered the Independence Day of Israel to be a sacred holiday because he saw in it the beginning of the complete redemption of humanity and its ascent to the level of the Creator.

Question: For most people, this holiday embodies the independence of the Jewish nation.

Answer: There is no such thing as a nation that can be absolutely independent. We see that everyone in the entire world depends upon each other and a person depends upon other people because he cannot live by himself. So it is impossible to call our physical existence independent.

Independence can be attained only when you are in complete contact with those forces that determine your existence and you know how to manage them. Then, it is still possible to speak about some kind of independence, even though this concept is too facile. No one can be independent! Even a stone depends upon the environmental conditions that surround it.

A person’s independence can be discovered only when he feels full dependence and finds within it the possibility of being independent. Basically, this is a psychological intention. If a person is in the right, good, and eternal connection with all the parameters that influence and act upon him, then he is considered independent. He depends upon them completely, but because he begins to determine their relationship to him by himself, he is independent.

It is said that the Creator is good and benevolent, and in His system there is nothing that can cause us harm. But a person, himself, invites actions and negative influences within himself because he is not compatible with the system of the Creator. This means that in order to become independent from himself, he needs to correct himself and adapt himself to the level of the Creator; in other words, he must change to become good and benevolent, and then nothing will frighten him. He would be in a field of positive forces. Only in this  form are we independent! We need to reach this state.

It follows that, on the one hand, this is a state of full resemblance to the Creator, full dependence upon Him, but on the other hand, we also utilize His full dependence in us. This means that we are equal with Him, resemble Him and are absolutely connected with Him, and this is a state of full independence.
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From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Independence Day” 4/2/15

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Question: On Memorial Day we honor the fallen and say in the memorial prayer, “May they be imprinted in the heart of Israel from generation to generation.” What exactly do we need to remember? What lessons should be learned from these losses?

Answer: Remember—and then make a calculation for the future. And regardless of kinship, because everyone, either close or distant, belongs to the same people.

We need to be aware of why they fell. What caused these troubles? What does the world want from us? Why are we unable to arrange our lives so that peace and tranquility reigns in our relationships between us and other nations?

We come to realize that we lack only one thing: to balance and compensate for the evil inclination that burns between us, constantly causing friction and conflict. If we normalize to appease relations within the country, we will open this umbrella of peace above all the others.

What happens to the people of Israel is definitely going to happen to the world. This is stated in the Torah.

Since everyone hates us, that in itself is proof of our particular role. After all, the world does not harbor such a strong collective hatred toward anyone else. Is it difficult to see this as a sign of a special force, a special attitude?

It is time to think about what happens to these people. Throughout history we run from misery, trying to be like everyone else, and in return, we are told, “No, you are not like us. Stay back and check yourself. We blame you for being special and bringing us all evil and suffering.”

From where would it seem that this slander comes? After all, we want to give the world only good things. They say, “No, we do not need all that seems to be good to you. We want from you what will really make peace in the world.”

The nations demand unity from us, which will be a good example for everyone.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/16/15

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The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:32 – 26:33: I will make the Land desolate, so that it will become desolate [also] of your enemies who live in it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you. Your land will be desolate, and your cities will be laid waste.

There is a simple law regarding the operation of the surveillance system: If you invoke negative phenomena in the general mass by your actions, you must receive negative feedback from the connection system in order to correct yourself and your actions properly so that you can get back on the right track. Then, the feedback operates on you and guides you in the right direction.

This is exactly what we receive from the nations of the world. Unfortunately, we now see again to what extent this connection is getting increasingly more intense, and it begins to pressure us.

No one can escape it and hide from it since it is in nature, in the forces that govern us. It says that the Creator will find you at the ends of the earth and bring you back to the land of Israel. In any case, you will find yourself here and fulfill your role! This is what the Torah says.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/14

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Question: On [Israeli] Independence Day, we conduct military parades and talk about the military “might” that makes it possible for us to be an independent nation. Would you say that this is not the main thing?

Answer: Certainly, we don’t determine anything through military might. These are all children’s games. However, as long as we don’t become stronger on a spiritual level, then we need to be strong on the earthly level.

If we had a strong inner connection between us, no one could ever harm us. Everything depends on the degree of unity between us. Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that only unity between us determines the degree of our security. Our independence depends on that.

Question: Does the nation need to be strong to protect its borders?

Answer: Power of this type indicates the weakness of the nation. If we were strong in our inner unity, then we would have no need for an army at all because we would have no enemies.

So, independence can be through freedom from my “self.” To the degree that I can rise above it through connection with others according to the principle, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” to this degree, I am freed from all kinds of troubles, wars, terror, and everything else.

We need to act through the greatest and strongest weapon in the world, unity, which is what everyone expects from us, and, as long as it doesn’t exist, the entire world is against us, and this will only get worse because everyone is required for unity, and they see their enemy in us.

Subconsciously or consciously, everyone in the world will want the annihilation of our nation and people because our people are not carrying out their task, their mission, and in everyone’s eyes we seem as the bearer of evil, instead of good.

So, Independence Day must be a day of re-examination of the entire concept of our existence. It must be a day for exploration of our task, our mission, our destiny, our purpose, and then we can talk about having found a way to become independent.
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From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Independence Day” 4/2/15

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I am a son of Holocaust survivors who were among the few of the Laitman family who survived the Holocaust. Two thirds of my relatives were slaughtered in the death camps. I was born in 1946 and was raised under the dark shadow that the war left on my family and on the Jewish population in all of Eastern Europe.

For me the Holocaust isn’t some distant memory, but a painful reminder of what might happen to us. It is this thought that brings up the constant troubling question in me: How can we prevent another Holocaust?

I feel an ocean of hatred closing in on us. The external signs have never been clearer and international reports indicate an upsurge in anti-Semitism. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a question was brought up on the BBC as to whether the time has come to cease talking about the Holocaust, and about a month ago, there was supposed to be a scientific convention in England about the legitimacy of the State of Israel. If this is not enough, an agreement regarding the use of nuclear weapon has recently been signed with Iran, which is more evidence as to why we must not rely on our allies.

It is hard to ignore the clear warning signals as to what is expected. So how can we prevent another Holocaust? In addition to lamenting about the past, we must make room for close scrutiny, examination, and the correction of our current state. We live in a closed system of forces that operate according to the law of connection. When we are compatible with that law, we feel good, and when we are divided and separated, this system, like any other system in nature, forces us to balance ourselves. Sometimes correcting this direction can involve great suffering.

I am aware of how difficult it may be for Holocaust survivors and their families to read what I say, but still the truth must be said. The Holocaust took place because the Israeli nation didn’t keep the law of connection. Why us? Because we have a special responsibility to keep this law. We have a role that was given to us back in the days of Abraham. When egoism tore the people of ancient Babylon apart, our forefather discovered the law that governs our reality, which is the law of connection. The few that learned the method of connection from him became the nation of Israel.

Keeping the law of connection is our life’s goal, and passing on the method of connection and unity is the only justification for our existence as a nation. At the beginning of the 20^th century we received an opportunity to return to the land of Israel, not in order to build a home for the Jewish people, but in order to connect within it. The Jews didn’t take this opportunity and preferred to isolate themselves in their communities in Europe or to integrate within general society. The reaction of the upper system to these actions was the Holocaust. A moment before the world drowned in blood, Kabbalists still cried out that we had to return to our land and unite, but the Jews didn’t listen. Instead of willingly moving closer, the terrible afflictions of the Holocaust brought us closer to one another, and it was as a result of the Holocaust that we received a country.

With all due respect to the United Nations, the real mandate for the existence of this country is our role. The county we received, as Kabbalists say, is only an opportunity to keep the law of connection, which is exactly what the world demands of us. Subconsciously, the world wants us to unite and to also pass Abraham’s method on to them. But we refuse to connect, and this is the source of the hatred they feel towards us.

Holocaust Remembrance Day and Independence Day have to become days in which we all engage in our role as a nation, and they must also be days of reexamining the essence of our existence. During these days, we have to gather in tens of thousands of roundtables throughout the country and talk about the only way of being truly independent—independent of our ego and connected to one another through love of others. This is the only way we can secure our future and our children’s future.
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Confucianism, Religion and Society

Question: Today, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, countries where the majority of the population are Chinese, is a rapidly developing area. Is it related to special psychological attributes or philosophies of the Chinese people? After all, Confucianism is the basis of their philosophy, which includes loyalty to the nation, moderation, and keeping the law.

Answer: Yes, it is relevant and significant to some extent since Confucianism replaces the religions that are the basis of religious ritual in the other countries in Asia and Europe. Confucianism is the religion of the society. The state and the society become a person’s god, and the person becomes their servant. Confucius laid the foundation of a serious system that matches the nature of the nation that is expressed in unlimited loyalty to society and one’s readiness to give up everything he has for its sake.

The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Confucianism

Question: Can we see any connection between Confucianism and the wisdom of Kabbalah in any way, in that one of the important components of this psychology or philosophy is the ability to postpone consumption to the next day? Even today, there are rigid laws in Singapore that regulate consumption. If you make more than a certain sum of money, you cannot spend it on yourself, but must give it to some special fund that saves it for your education, health care, and future pension. This means that everything comes down to norms of wise consumption.

Answer: That’s true. You have brought up a very important point: the connection between the wisdom of Kabbalah and Confucianism. The wisdom of Kabbalah calls for love thy friend as thyself. If we dig more deeply into Confucianism, we will see that it also aspires to the unity of the people and to providing its basic, normal needs, while everything that exceeds a person’s normal needs must be directed to the benefit of society.

Question: It is actually thanks to such funds that the economy in Singapore is flourishing so rapidly. You invest your money for your future, and it is invested in developing the economy, which, in its turn, leads to raising the standard of living of every member in society.

Answer: Unfortunately, the attempts made in China, Singapore, and other countries will collapse eventually because they are disconnected from nature. Their current situation is temporary, and it will hold on until the egoism in society grows to such an extent that they will not be able to remain in the old frameworks and existing laws. This will lead to large-scale bribery and thefts that we haven’t seen even in Russia and in the US.

Question: However, there are still people among the leaders of these countries who understand the impending danger. The current Chinese president, for example, is fighting corruption like no one before him ever did.

Answer: They will not be able to do anything unless they renew the educational values of the nation. It isn’t about a new Chinese education, but Kabbalistic education. A person should feel that he can reach a new level of development through education and at the same time he earns his eternal state. If he doesn’t, he will rot like an animal. It is one of the two. People gladly will agree to limit themselves on the corporeal level for such a reward because it promises only positive outcomes, being the sensible form of consumption, and will be more considerate of others since they will feel that it is in the connection with others that they can acquire the agreement, the framework, in which they will feel the next dimension.

The Constitution of Israel: Love Thy Friend As Thyself

Question: I didn’t bring up these countries as a random example. It is because it is easier to illustrate certain benefits in a small geographical area. Can your idea be demonstrated in Israel first?

Answer: I would be glad to implement this idea among the Chinese and in other remote places, but it can only work in Israel with its egoistic, stubborn people. Because it is from this nation that such ideas will pass on to the entire world. I believe that it is only by working with our people that we will feel the urgent need for a change in paradigm, of the actual basis of our world view and our attitude to ourselves, to the state, to the nation, and to the world. At the moment, we don’t have all that; at the moment there is no nation and no state.

Question: There is still no constitution in Israel.

Answer: There is actually an old constitution. It is concealed in the basics of the wisdom of Kabbalah: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” I believe that we will be able to fulfill it in our lives when we approach all the sectors of the nation, to meet with them, talk to them, not through approaching the government.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 4/1/15

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Torah, “Leviticus” 26:9 – 26:12: I will turn towards you, and I will make you fruitful and increase you, and I will set up My covenant with you. You will eat very old [produce], and you will clear out the old from before the new. And I will place My dwelling in your midst, and My Spirit will not reject you; I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

Question: What does this mean: “And I will walk among you….”?

Answer: This means that all of the distance and space between us will be filled with the characteristics of the Creator, the properties of bestowal and love. So we will become His people, that system that consciously, willingly, and with love, accepts and perceives all of His laws and feels the Creator, and He us, for according to the law of “equivalence of form,” He is found among His people.

The Creator turns to all who want to be like Him by carrying out these conditions. Every person can become Israel, except for a few people who are like Amalek. They are not ready to change themselves. Yet, in each one of us, there is a characteristic of Amalek because, falling from a spiritual height, they have become mixed among us at the end of the last exile so that we became a mixture of all kinds of qualities. So, we need to wipe out the property of Amalek in us completely and replace it with a new quality. This is talking about those qualities and quantities that we must correct.

We need to understand that each one of us includes within himself all of the human qualities. So, when we correct ourselves, we can correct all of humanity and, in this way, pave the way for the rest of the people, fragments of whom already are found within us.

Question: However, it is difficult for a person to understand that each one of us is composed of all the rest, and yet you introduce this as an axiom.

Answer: I would not say that it is difficult to understand and internalize this. This is basically a scientific picture characteristic of a global world in which everyone is mutually linked, including the opposing properties within them.

The fact is that if we don’t discern reality this way, we cannot be corrected. We need to attain this thought and understand that as long as the last person of the seven billion has not corrected himself, humanity will not be corrected because his fragment exists in each one of us, he or she must be corrected and integrated with the others. This is an integral system in which each part is composed of all the rest, as well as his own.

Question: You once said that movies were for a person to identify with someone and even feel him, for example, The Prince and the Pauper.

Answer: In the world everything is created only so that our characteristics will become mingled. Movies are one of the means through which we can become integrated with others. After all, in any case it is information, no matter what.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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Question: Do animals feel nature as one system in which everything is connected?

Answer: Yes, they feel it at their level.

Question: And can they feel the future, for exactly that reason?

Answer: Animals can only feel some kind of threat to their life, but they are not able rise above the worry of their regular, beastly existence. This is called instinct.

Animals feel the connection to the general system, but for them it provides only the information at the level of animate. Animals know what will happen, thus they are more careful than men and their behavior is more logical.

Animals don’t make mistakes! They have all the required information in order to exist, which is called natural instinct. Man is lacking this.

Question: If I had such instinct, would it be possible that my life would be better? Maybe I wouldn’t be overdrawn at the bank, wouldn’t have an ulcer, and wouldn’t be living in constant tension.

Answer: That’s a good question. What is preferable? Since if you had such instinct, then you would be an animal and not a man. Animals have all the information for a good life, i.e., the feeling of connection with the goal of creation. And man doesn’t have this at all. Why? Because at the speaking level one doesn’t automatically receive connection to the goal of creation, but must acquire it through self development.

Every person has this potential, but one needs to advance gradually. You cannot catch the occasional passerby and begin to convince him that he needs to do this. A person needs to be ready for this. If he feels that he must know the future, then I am able to teach him how to do this.

Comment: I am ready for learning! I really must know the future because that will solve all the problems for me, and explain to me how to behave towards my children and my wife and what profession to choose.

Answer: You will know everything! If you have such a burning question that brings you to despair and demands a reply, then this is a sign that you can do this.

At the end of the course for integral education (the wisdom of connection), you will come to the sensation that all people are inseparable parts of the same system, without any difference between them, including yourself. And in the beginning, it is enough to reach this feeling towards a stranger, not towards a family member.

Question: Meaning, if I feel towards a stranger as I do myself, then based on that I will create within me the ability to see the future?

Answer: Yes. You will feel the integral sensation, exit from within your ego, and sense me, for example. You must feel me as you do yourself. If you are able to feel something outside yourself as yourself, then the whole of reality opens up before you. You open your senses and you can see all your surroundings in a real way.

Question: Why can’t I learn integral thought by myself with the help of my intellect, without needing someone else?

Answer: For whom do you exit yourself if not for someone else? This is not abstract philosophy, but it requires a lot of practice and many actions with whose help we examine all the “pros “ and “cons.” It isn’t simple. After all we need to exist beyond the feeling of our “I.” That is the first condition of integral thought.

When I exit my “I,” I begin to feel who is outside of me, and to the same extent, I feel everything else. I open the extent of my feelings, from the level of my five senses to a complete reality.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/23/14

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Question: Is the European group of Bnei Baruch also to blame if the world experiences a disaster because of a lack of connection within Israel?

Answer: Today, everyone is responsible for this, meaning each one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah and feels a connection inside Israel. When I refer to Israel, I am referring to all of our friends and groups all over the world.

All of us have received an awakening from the Creator, just as the group of Abraham received it in ancient Babylon. And so we are found today in the same situation of Israel (Yashar-El – straight to the Creator).

It is not important that one received an awakening 3,500 years ago in Babylon, came with it to this day, and another received this awakening in South America only a few months or years ago. According to the spiritual world, there is no meaning to these physical years.

All of us are already related to Yashar-El , directly connected to the Creator, and so must convey the Light through us to the world. If we do this, it will be good; and if not, it will be very bad. I hope that we will succeed.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Chosen Topics on: Holocaust Memorial Day

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