Entries in the 'Nations of the World' Category

What Did the Creator Offer Us

931.01Question: One of the biggest celebrations for Jews is the holiday of Shavuot when the people received the Torah at Mount Sinai.

In general, it is a great event for the world because it can be said that everything began with this. How do you define this celebration for the world?

Answer: For the world I cannot define it in any way because the world does not know anything about it, has not taken it, and does not take any part in it to this day. People of Israel, also, I would not say that they especially celebrate this holiday. It is just a celebration of the giving of the Torah.

But receiving the Torah is a completely different matter. It comes individually to everyone when each one, if they understand what it is, agrees to take upon themselves the instructions and the advice that the Torah gives to a person. Then, indeed, a person gradually begins to organize an inner understanding of what the Torah is and what it gives him. And then he can celebrate it.

Comment: It turns out that I was wrong when I said “receiving.” You corrected me. It is the giving of the Torah. Receiving is a whole process that will continue.

My Response: This is from below up. The giving is from the top down. Meaning, giving is something that the Creator does, so to say. And receiving is what I have to come to, to get it.

Question: Then tell me how to do it. I know the sources say that the people stood as one man with one heart, this was their state, and at that moment they received the instruction of life, so to say.

Do we have to get to this state in order to start revealing something?

Answer: Of course. All this is said not about the past, but about the future.

Question: Can today’s shattered, scattered world not even imagine what is there at all?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Your constant phrase that we should come to these good ties, to connect with each other, is this precisely so that we can begin this process of receiving the Torah, by and large?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What will we get then? The set of laws is clear to me.

Answer: This is not just a set of laws. We will get a completely new attitude toward relationships between people and the relationship of each person toward the world. This is love. “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Everything that is placed there consists only of this.

Comment: It turns out that you reduce the Torah to one thing practically. You said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

My Response: Yes. This means coming to a state where we are completely connected by love, care, and mutual complicity with each other, all the people together.

The Torah represents the upper force, the upper light, which, to the extent of our efforts and our diligence to get closer and unite, affects us and helps us to achieve such a state of connection.

All that is required of us is effort and diligence, i.e., striving for it. Then we will be able to attract this upper light, the upper force. And it will correct us and connect us with others, with all the people of the world.

Question: Does it depend on us, on me? Or is my effort a gift from above?

Answer: From above is an offer: if you want, you will get it. But it depends on us to accept it and implement it.

Question: What do you think is the current stage of the Jewish people and the world in this process of receiving the Torah?

Answer: I would say not so far away because we have passed the path of the revelation of evil, which is the extent of our nature being opposite of the nature of the Torah, love, connection, mutual assistance, and so on. That is why we do not have much left to do. We just need to draw a conclusion from what we have gone through and with the revelation of the evil of our nature, take upon ourselves the law of mutual love.

Question: We approach, as they say, this mountain, Mount Sinai.

What is Mount Sinai?

Answer: Mount Sinai, the mountain, this is clear, and “Sinai” is from the word “hate,” a mountain of hate that we must rise above.

Humanity must approach this huge mountain of hatred and rise above it. Then they will be able to connect with each other in one single system, in one single nation, and achieve absolute happiness.

Question: Are you saying the whole of humanity into one nation?

Answer: Yes, because the Torah generally speaks about all the people on Earth.

Question: When you say Torah, does everyone imagine a book?

Answer: No. The Torah is a system of correction of all people, up to their complete connection with each other.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/18/23

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The Inevitability of the Recognition of Evil

504Question: Do Jews understand why there is pressure on them from all sides?

Answer: They understand perfectly, but what can you do? This is the law of nature, the forces of nature, which direct the uncorrected people in this way to hate those in whom there is a spiritual germ, the source of the upper soul.

We cannot agree with that, we hate ourselves. We, Jews, do not like ourselves for this because we are uncorrected.

Comment: But in fact, the Jews themselves do not know this.

My Response: What difference does it make if they know or not? This is the law of nature; this is how natural forces work. Anti-Semites do not know why they do not like Jews, they invent all sorts of excuses, and Jews do not know why they hate them, and they also invent all sorts of reasons. It comes from two upper opposing forces, just like everything in our world.

In the corporeal world, the representative of spiritual forces is a Jew. In order to make myself a representative of the spiritual forces instead of him, I must destroy him, not destroy completely, but to leave him as an example: “Look at the state he is in, it means I am right, I won, I am higher.”

Question: Will the Jews ever understand their destiny? Or will they realize it only when they are slaughtered?

Answer: No, this cannot happen. They will realize their mission, demonstrate it, and offer it to the whole world. Then, to the extent that everyone participated in the beating of this tribe, he will have to overcome this whole process within himself, because the recognition of evil must pass through all the Kelim (Vessels), through all the phases of egoism in the opposite direction.

The great tragedy of humanity is that for many millennia they have shown their hatred of the Jews for being representatives of God on Earth.

Now we need to roll this in reverse in all nations to the same extent that they resisted, destroyed, and burned Jews. They will have to experience all this for themselves in order to be corrected. I do not know in what form it will be, morally, spiritually, or even physically, but it is not at all easier. After all, we do not go through anything directly from end to end. We have to go through the recognition of evil.

It is said in The Book of Zohar that my inner non-Jew (Goy) strikes at my Jew inside, that is, my egoism strikes at the quality of bestowal and love. Therefore, everyone will have to accept this and go through this as the recognition of their own evil in great internal suffering, and only after that begin their correction. This is the law of nature, there is nothing we can do. So, all this is still ahead.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Teacher” 1/23/11

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Egoism Versus Spiritual Forces

431.05Question: Why were Jews previously forced to live in shtetls in Europe or driven into ghettos? Why were they treated in this way?

Answer: Because if you feel that I am the bearer of spiritual values and I prevent you from proclaiming yourself the bearer of these values, you must destroy me.

You must constantly show yourself, your children, and everyone else that I am low, insignificant, and worthless: “Look what the Creator allows me to do with him because the truth is with me!” This is a purely egotistic attitude toward one’s ideological opponent.

What did Europe do? Entire Jewish cities were slaughtered and burned there. When I was in England, they showed me the places where all the Jews were herded into synagogues and burned alive.

Anti-Semites are not aware of their actions. They are subconsciously driven by the source of our egoism, which is actually spiritual. They cannot agree that there is a representative of spiritual forces in the world. Anti-Semitism has no rational roots.

Anti-Semites can justify their actions in any way, but in the end, this source is suspended in the upper world. It comes from the opposition of Jacob and Esau. There is no getting away from this, and it will be so until the end of the correction. This will escalate further in future confrontations between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism until Kabbalah takes over.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Teacher” 1/23/11

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What Does the Wrong Interpretation of the Torah Lead To?

533.02Comment: The main problem in the development of fascism was that it is written in the Torah, “Use a non-Jew.”

My Response: If the Torah is interpreted within the framework of our world, then it will be worse than Mein Kampf because it says that non-Jews should be killed, deceived, neglected, and anything can be done with them.

If this is not interpreted as “my egoistic desires, which I have to deceive, change,” and so on, then it is quite obvious that this can be used as the basis for hatred of Jews.

But who can even think about it correctly? Those who benefit from it politically, no more than that.

Because you don’t see it anywhere in history. Do Jews earn money? That is correct. Do they know how to settle better than others? That is also correct. But, in principle, they do not harm anyone. It is invented by those who benefit from it. And this is natural.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Nazism and the Jews” 1/9/11

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Nazism and the Jews

547.03Question: Why did the Nazis hate Jews specifically?

Answer: This comes from the fact that the matter of our world is completely opposite to the spiritual, which is carried by the Jews.

There is a right and left line, and on the conjunction of them the soul is built. And at the same time there are extreme right and extreme left lines called Klipot, meaning, right and left impurity, which are opposite to their lines, and they hate them. This is all explained in Kabbalah.

The Nazis were representatives of the more impure part of the left line. They understood that the Jews were a spiritual part, and believed that it was possible to physically destroy what was spiritually inherent in nature.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Nazism and the Jews” 1/9/11

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Israel and the Nations

749.01Question: What is the principle of mixing the nations of the world and Israel? What is the purpose of this process?

Answer: On the animal level, the mixing of nations does not matter at all: who mixes with whom, what kind of children they give birth to: black, white, or red.

It only matters to rise to the degree of “Israel” – “Yashar El,” “straight to the Creator,” meaning to the degree of equivalence to the Creator so that those who call themselves Israelites, Jews and non-Jews, will rise to this degree, and the whole of Ancient Babylon will come to its correction.

Question: But what is this quality “the mixing of the nations of the world”?

Answer: This is not an external, but an internal mixing, when a point in the heart begins to arise in each of us, called “Israel” – “Yashar El.” The aspiration to the Creator, to attain the Creator is called “Israel.”

This point originated in ancient Babylon in the several thousand people who left Babylon and formed their own nation although they were in no way connected with each other except for a spiritual purpose.

It is the same thing today. Gradually all nations, each in their own time, in their own situations, will begin to feel the need for spiritual ascent. And that point in the heart, which is called “Israel” – “straight to the Creator,” regardless of today’s Israel, will awaken in everyone and force them to start a spiritual path, because that is how our development is programmed. We will all reach this state.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Israel And the Nations” 2/7/11

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Israel’s Independence Day

268.01Comment: We are used to the phrase “Israel’s Independence Day.” We are used to this holiday, and we celebrate it. In today’s world, the word “independence” is heard everywhere: independent countries, independent republics, independent press, independent experts… All sides of conflicts, all parties, speak about it, the rights, the lefts, individuals, everyone!

Besides, it is not just a word, but a very important concept in Kabbalah.

My Response: In Kabbalah, this concept is absolutely the opposite of what people, the world, society, countries, and nations understand.

What does independence mean? Independence from what?

Comment: This is the independence of my borders, independence from someone else. I want to live by myself, with my national independence, republican, state, and so on. If no one gets to me, this means that I am independent; I will build my own world. This is called independence.

My Response: But this is impossible because, in today’s world, everyone depends on each other. So how can we be independent? If you are going to be independent, you should go into the woods and provide yourself with what you can. You are condemning yourself to terrible conditions.

Question: You can say it in another way: “So that no one dictates to me how to live.” Is it also impossible?

Answer: This is the same thing. No one will dictate anything to you, but how will you provide for yourself? How will you create and preserve this independence? It is completely unclear how this is possible.

Today, a developing country in the world should be connected to all the countries by good mutual ties. Only in this case, can it feel comfortable for everyone; otherwise, it will feel crushed, limited, humiliated, and so on.

Question: If it will be on its own?

Answer: Yes, but no one will give it such an opportunity. After all, all countries surround each other and want, like wolves in the forest, to snatch from others as much as they can. This is our normal, egoistic world. It cannot be any different. It was always like that, only we covered ourselves up a little. We did not reveal it enough in our egoism.

Question: Do you think there is no point in demanding independence in this world? It does not exist and will not exist?

Answer: We can demand, but at the same time, we must demand from ourselves! This is the most important thing. If we observe such conditions then there are good neighborly relations, peace, and mutual assistance between us, which are contrary to our inherent, natural quality to receive, conquer, and force peace.

Comment: If we have a connection, then it is against someone. All this is vicious.

My Response: Of course. Therefore, everything we create is only supposedly for the benefit of ourselves and to the detriment of others. There cannot be one instead of the other.

Kabbalah speaks of independence where we rise above our egoism. Independence from our personal egoism. This is what real independence is, and then I only think about others. It is among the others, in good relations with others, which I create with all my capabilities, there I feel independent.

Question: Are you saying, “only about others”? Do I not think about myself at all?

Answer: I do not, I am a consequence. I exist even today as a consequence of the attitude of everyone else toward me.

Question: Does it mean that I can only think about others, and then the consequence will be how they treat me, how I am, and so on?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Should my first thought not be: “Will they treat me well if I treat others well?”

Answer: I do not think this is the nature of a person and our society. Therefore, to say such beautiful phrases as: “Do not hit others, and they will not hit you,” and so on does not work.

Question: Does what you say work? How is it possible in our world that I do not think about myself, but think about others? Publicly, for example.

Answer: The fact is that, of course, it does not work anyway. If I treat others well, I will only give them an additional reason to grab me and bite off all sorts of pieces of me. Thus, the whole problem in human society is for it to transform itself from a pack of predators into an organized, mutual, voluntary, and kind community.

Question: Do you believe in this fiction?

Answer: No, I do not believe it by any means, but I say it because in principle this is the only solution. Exactly when we realize that this is the only solution, albeit a fantastic and impossible one, then we suddenly can implement it.

Question: From where?

Answer: From above. We will be able to receive such a force from nature that will lift us above our egoism, and then it will be implemented. I will be above my nature, I will be above my thoughts, I will be above my decisions. How will it work out? It will work out because the second force of nature will be revealed—the quality of bestowal, connection, and love.

Question: Can you guarantee this to me? For example, I am a politician or an ordinary person, and I hear you. Can you guarantee me that?

Answer: I can only tell you again in more detail so that you understand that there is no other way. Or we are going to perish and die in every generation. And in the future generation, the same fate is prepared for our descendants. Nothing is changing, except that the sufferings are becoming greater, and the possibility of solving them with the help of wars and deaths is becoming more and more terrible.

Question: Will I come to what you say through understanding this and feeling this?

Answer: Yes, in the end, we will understand. Moreover, this is a very scary decision because we will feel like we are being skinned. Because this is the opposite of me.

But there is an opportunity to resolve this issue in a kind, peaceful way. It means to study our nature and study the force of nature that can help us change ourselves. Then we will be able to place ourselves under the influence of this good force of nature, and it will change us from little evil predators to big kind creatures.

Question: Do you think we are getting closer to this understanding that we are little evil predators?

Answer: We are getting closer. However, so far we are also approaching it in a bad way.

But according to the way all kinds of positive and negative forces are being revealed more and more, especially in our generation, and we are given the opportunity to talk about it and somehow implement them; that is, there is hope that we will be able to formalize for ourselves, for our understanding, and for our knowledge of this system of nature’s forces, and to understand how we can balance it and express the good force from it.

I think we can do it. Otherwise, we will still come to this, but in a very long way, a terrible way of suffering.

Question: It is said that the Messiah will come when the face of humanity will be like the muzzle of a dog. Does this apply to us, to our time?

Answer: Yes, it is people’s awareness of their terrible, bestial nature. We are getting closer to this now. But we can see it from afar, and that is enough. We do not necessarily have to get right into the dog’s den. It is enough just to see it and be scared.

Comment: God grant that it will be so.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/3/22

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Israel—75 Years of War and Peace

421.01Question: We have reached a milestone date: 75 years of Israel’s independence. It has been 75 years since the Jews found their home, 75 years of wars, 75 years of proving that this is our place, that we want to live here, and so on. These have not been easy years.

How would you sum up this 75th anniversary?

Answer: I would like us to understand that time is not working for us. We must admit that in the eyes of the world, despite all our attempts to present ourselves as the best, we still look like the worst.

Comment: This is a paradox. We have huge achievements in medicine, in progress, in everything.

My Response: Absolutely no one needs this from us. On the contrary, if we suffered, then maybe a certain number of non-Jews would love us. Or rather, they would feel sorry for us. But not in this way.

Comment: The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam welcomed the creation of the State of Israel.

My Response: He hoped that this state of Israel would be the right one.

Comment: What do you consider right?

My Response: It is when the people who will inhabit it will try to show the entire world what the purpose of a person’s life on Earth is.

Question: You take it globally. What about the fact that a home was created for Jews who were persecuted and exterminated?

Answer: What for?

Question: To live at home, so that no one touches you. Is that not an idea?

Answer: This is impossible for the Jews. We were kicked out of our home. We have never had our own home in general. The fact that we lived for several hundred years, even less, in the land of Israel in the past, says nothing.

Question: How about the fact that Temples were built here?

Answer: So, what? We took the land from other nations and built them. Were there no nations here before that?

Rashi wrote that the nations of the world would come and ask: “Why did you take the land away from the nations who lived here?” And the Jews will have to answer. He asks, what can we answer?  “The entire earth belongs to the Creator. He gave it to other nations, and then took it from them and gave it to us.”

But this is correct if we follow His instructions, will, and desire. Yet, we do not do that. Therefore, there is no life for us here and there will not be. Will not be! I say this to everyone and always.

Comment: We started by saying that this is a holiday, but what you are saying does not sound festive.

My Response: This is a holiday because the people received the opportunity, as Baal HaSulam says, to exist on their land and fulfill their mission before all of humanity. So, if we fulfill it, because this opportunity still exists, then everything will turn out right and everyone in the world will understand why Jews exist and what we should do.

Question: What is the mission of the Jews, and why do they exist on this earth?

Answer: The Jews exist in order to live on this earth in unity with each other, in such a unity that will be called absolute unity. When they will be able to show all other nations an example of how to actually live without wars, without violence, without mutual hatred.

This is what we must show to the whole world. Then we will have the right to exist. Everyone will understand why we exist at all. And everyone will be happy to see that we exist on our own piece of land in order to translate all this into action and example.

Question: Then will everyone want this piece of land to exist, for Jews to live here, and for them to prosper?

Answer: Yes. In particular, our cousins the Arabs.

Question: In that case, what is independence in light of what you are saying?

Answer: Independence is independence from our egoism, when we can rise above it and show this example to all the nations of the world how to live in connection, in friendship, and in mutuality. Everyone will want to follow it.

This is our mission from above. Therefore, we are a special nation in this sense, and we cannot escape anywhere from fulfilling this mission. But it may take several thousand more years until we come to this.

Question: Thousands of years?!

Answer: Thousands. Has it been 2,000 years? Another 2,000 years will pass. It does not matter how long it takes, but we still will not be able to run away from fulfilling our mission.

We can hope that over the next 2,000 years, we will understand something after all.

Question: Is there such a layer in us that it cannot be penetrated?

Answer: The egoistic layer is such that maybe the next 2,000 years will do something to us.

Question: But anyway, one way or another, this is not our work, this is the work of the Creator. He might as well do it tomorrow. Why do we have to wait 2,000 years?

Answer: We are obliged, we have to agree to this job. We must wait for such a revolution in ourselves when we want to be not competing with each other but loving each other, to “love your neighbor as yourself” and be able to convey this as an example to all other nations of the world.

Comment: You have always said that a good businessman is a strategist, he looks forward to many years. A bad businessman wants to quickly grab something right now and that is it. You are such a businessman that you are looking forward to 2,000 years. You are engaged in this, you are disseminating this, and at the same time, you are saying that this is…

My Response: I live in this every day with the hope that after some time, I am not saying 2,000 years, but as we understand, not yet today, the people will begin to change.

Comment: And for this, you are ready to keep saying it today and repeating it.

My Response: In order for this to begin to be implemented in a few thousand years.

Question: But are you still an optimist?

Answer: I am not an optimist. I say that this is the law of nature, and we will still be obliged to implement it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/20/23

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Internal Potential of Correction

961.2Comment: To correct oneself for the sake of correcting the world sounds unthinkable for modern Jews.

My Response: Yes, exactly. It is much easier to raise any other nation to this precisely because there is less egoism and less potential for correction in it.

The Jews have internal genes from past incarnations. Therefore, dig a little bit, and they jump out. We see that among the people of Israel there is an opportunity for communication, unity, and mutual assistance.

All of this is not superficial, it lies inside. These are internal genes that are records of the information in which we existed. And now it is necessary to revive it and raise it.

We are trying to do it through dissemination. Of course, we still need to make a lot of efforts to pull the masses living in Israel with us.

They will gradually begin to be imbued with this since we that are correcting ourselves penetrate them even if we do not want it because the whole world is interconnected. And through them the correction will pass to the rest of mankind. It will pass! Internal forces will seep through everyone, and people will begin to understand, think, and solve all problems in a different way.

I believe that we can still make a correction and implement it in a good way. I believe in it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Gaza Helps the Jews” 11/24/12

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Are We Ready to Exit Egypt Today?

293Is there any hope that today’s people of Israel will be able to escape from the division in society like they once managed to escape from Pharaoh and exit Egypt?

Unfortunately, there is no basis for this yet. After all, when we left Egypt, we felt that we belonged to the same nation and opposed a common enemy, the Pharaoh, that is, the egoistic inclination that separates us.

When we left Egypt, we had already achieved some recognition of evil, but today this is not the case. Today we see evil only in those who oppose us; the left sees evil in the right, and the right in the left, and that is it. We do not notice our true enemy—our own egoism. Therefore, we are still far from exiting Egypt, and there is still a long way to the recognition of the evil of our egoism.

It depends on the education and preparation of everyone, and we see how difficult it is to accept this. Egoism is so deeply embedded in us and has grown so widely that it is difficult to understand where it begins and where it ends.

Unfortunately, we do not try to move to correction in a good way by ourselves, but we advance only because the Creator pushes us forward. Therefore, it is difficult to say what other trials we will have to go through until we reach the final redemption.

“Egypt” today is a common mutual hatred between everyone. Whichever way you look at a person, all his relationships with the surrounding society are permeated with hatred. Egoism is our Pharaoh, as it has always been. We will be able to exit Egypt only when we erase brotherly hatred from ourselves and replace it with brotherly love and connection.

People should learn how to treat each other with love, no matter how contrary it is to today’s reality. The revelation of evil must precede the revelation of good, but in the end we will implement the program of creation.

The exodus from Egypt is an exit from mutual hatred, mutual rejection, and the common evil that has poisoned Israeli society. It is the people of Israel who are in Egypt, not the nations of the world who have everything in order.

Unfortunately, the people of Israel are experiencing such a manifestation of evil that does not yet lead to a solution and does not allow them to recognize the evil contained in mutual hatred. Everyone is still only trying to prove to others that they are right. Therefore, nothing good will come from it, and we will continue to fall.

The army, the police, and all circles of Israeli society are already involved in this two-sided conflict. Such an attitude is completely unbecoming to the people of Israel and has led to disastrous consequences in the past.

The problem is that no one wants to be cured of this disease. Everyone thinks that the solution is that his opinion should prevail because egoism always requires: “I will rule!”

However, we must continue to disseminate the method of connection and hope that the Creator will save us from all troubles, and from this division too.

The Creator cannot open our hearts in order to enter them. We have to open our hearts ourselves by working from below, and then the Creator will enter them from above and fill them. Our hearts are opened by the fact that we try to come closer to each other and pray to the Creator for help. We must know the essence and purpose of the people of Israel.

I wish the people of Israel greater wisdom and greater understanding, a greater sense that we are a very small nation surrounded by other nations who want to destroy us. We can be saved only on condition that we understand how this can be done, and we end from this moment onward all wars between us in order to live by the rule: “They helped everyone his friend!”

The people of Israel must live by such a law, and then we will end all these quarrels and come to the final redemption.
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From the Writers Meeting – Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman 4/4/23

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