New Life 756 – Love In The Bible
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The Torah defines love differently than we do. On the whole, for us all the stories in the Torah are great secrets.

It is based on the principle of love of others, which means caring about the wellbeing of others, to do others good and to live only in order to fill others, not thinking of what I will benefit from or what I will get in return.

The Torah doesn’t tell us about people but about spiritual systems. Spiritual love is giving and not receiving in order to satisfy my desires; spiritual love is overcoming the ego. Getting married for example, means to connect with the desires of another and to fill them.

The purpose of our life in this world is to reach love and connection because no one can really fill himself.

Therefore, the desire to love is deeply rooted in us, but we have to learn how to bring it out and to develop it.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to build love above the hatred we feel, to connect above the egoism that separates us. Spiritual love doesn’t depend on others but on the degree of your giving. It is through others that a person connects to the Creator.
[191833]
From KabTV’s “New Life 756 – Love In The Bible,” 8/9/16

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, Man and Woman, New Life - No Comments →

New Life #327 – Violence In Society, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Why is the tendency toward violence increasing in society in spite of the education that is given in schools, and how is it possible to treat the root of the phenomenon and lead a person to feel love toward others?

From generation to generation egoism evolves and aggressiveness increases. A person doesn’t understand why others exist at all. If I don’t receive satisfaction somewhere, I cannot wait and violence erupts. If once there was shame in being violent and powerful, today this is a norm; there is no shame about anything. A person cannot hear criticism, doesn’t agree with it, and immediately erupts with violence.

We don’t know how to build a proper system of relationships with the environment so that we enjoy each interacting.

Violence is a result of the lack of social education; it should begin from infancy and continue throughout life. Today, education is not carrying out a treatment of the root of the human ego. Instead it just tries to limit outbreaks. Adults require children to behave nicely, but behave violently themselves.

We need to do some soul-searching. Our society is sick, dominated by interests that don’t want correction. The internal cancer that is eating us is human egoism. We need to discover it and begin treatment.

Internal change comes from the study of human nature and developing the ability to use the ego correctly in relationships with others. Society will improve only when the individuals that compose it, the people, will change for the better.

The study is carried out in a circle, in a group, through building a good environment and correct communication between people.

Today someone with violent behavior is blamed, but the truth is that those who educated him should be blamed.

Correction is not through overcoming the violent impulses that are in me, but to reach a state where they are not aroused. It is not fear of punishment that is required to suppress violence; rather, it is the development of an attitude of love for others.

The correction of our situation depends on using the wisdom of connection that is being revealed today to move us forward.
[135510]
From KabTV’s “New Life #327 – Violence In Society, Part 2,” 3/25/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life - No Comments →

New Life #326 –  Violence In Society, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Basically, human nature is exploiting others for one’s own benefit, and is the cause for the increasing violence in society. How can we treat the problem at its root and stop it?

In ancient times when people felt like one family, there was no violence. The ego was very small. The ego grew, desires grew, and struggles for power and dominance began, exploiting others for my benefit.

In a system of cultural egoistic relationships, there is always violence, even if it is quiet and hidden. The definition of what is considered to be violence depends on changing social norms on the level of social morality.

Humans are the cruelest creatures in nature, taking everything from the environment, they ready to destroy it for their benefit. Even if a person seems to have a quiet nature, he can be more violent than anyone else.
There are whole towns of backward layers without education and social care. This leads to the perpetuation of violence.

It is impossible to contend with violence through increasing oppression and punishment. The treatment of the root is the correction of the ego.

The media inflames everything and therefore increases the violence and other negative phenomena—a social norm.

Violence is derived from the fact that human nature is evil and egoistic, and the environment even increases it. Violence will increase if the root is not treated, and human nature is not given a corrective treatment.

We cannot judge previous generations and say that they were more violent than we are. We are crueler. The method for correcting the individual and society has been revealed today, so it should be possible to treat the root of violence.
[135444]
From KabTV’s “New Life #326 – Violence In Society, Part 1,” 3/25/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life - No Comments →

New Life 325 – Forgiveness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is the desire for pleasure connected to vulnerability in us and a desire for revenge, how can we learn to be immune from vulnerability, and is it possible to forgive everything?

Our natural aspiration is for pleasure. We invest energy in attaining what is desirable in our eyes.

Imagine a situation in which I worked hard to buy a suit, and someone throws a few negative words about how I look…I am very hurt. Now, if he will not compensate me on all the damage that he has caused, I will want to take revenge on him.

Forgiveness is when you feel that the chasm that is gaping between you has closed and you have no urge to harm that person. If I hurt someone, and I want him to forgive me, it is up to me to come and do all kinds of good things for him. If someone hurts me, sometimes it is worthwhile to try to forget, so I won’t destroy my health. If you hurt someone in the past, and you want to reach love with him, say directly that you want to appease him. Ask him how you can fill the void from the harm that you caused him.

In a society whose goal is to achieve love of others, I need to say that everyone has been corrected except for me. I want to be like the general force of nature that is completely love and giving, so I make peace with everyone.

“Delighting in Mercy”: The one thing that is important to me is to benefit others, and then nobody can harm me. “Delighting in Mercy” is a state in which we balance our ego, meaning we direct it towards the good of others. “Delighting in Mercy” is caring that things are good for everyone. It is aware of human nature and relates to everyone with understanding.

When we are talking about the ego, this refers to a desire to benefit myself at the expense of others. Our egoism ultimately brings us to unpleasant situations, we harm ourselves.

Identify with the pain of the injured person, explain to him that the offending acts are from the ego, and that it is necessary to correct it.
[135344]
From KabTV’s “New Life 325 – Forgiveness,” 3/23/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life - No Comments →

New Life 324 –  Truth And Falsehood
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What is the meaning of truth and falsehood in our lives, according to what are they defined, in which cases is it possible to relate to falsehood as truth, and is it possible to reach absolute truth?

We don’t know what truth is. Every generation has different values; each person changes during his life.

It is human nature to think constantly only about oneself and one’s own good. If so, what kind of truth can there be here? For me, truth is what is good for me and falsehood is what is bad for me.

All of our lives are one big lie. I want to exploit everyone for my own good, but I hide this. It follows that there is no absolute truth or absolute falsehood; everything is a matter of expediency. This is very prominent in politics.

Even when a person does something good for someone else, it is only because he feels close to him. It follows that truth is our nature, meaning our desire to receive, to control, to exploit everything for our good.

Our children are less hypocritical than we are. We received an education about how to speak nicely and so forth. This has no power over them.

Once there were ideals, Socialism, Zionism. Today it is clear that everyone appeals only to himself and everything is a lie. Today there is no power in making an investment. It is even possible to download everything for free on the Internet with the press of a button.

What a person thinks of as his truth is basically the result of the education he received. When the question, “What am I living for?” is awakened, I have an opportunity to get closer to discovering the truth about myself.

In the Torah it is forbidden to lie, for its goal is to raise the person to the height of, “You shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), to the truth. Accordingly, falsehood is anything that doesn’t bring me to love of others.

The higher power is entirely love, giving and bestowal. There are no lies in it. I am the opposite, and my work is to become like it.

Truth and falsehood are relative. A white lie is a beneficial lie. It is necessary to check if the goal is for the good of others or a different goal. What must always guide me is the good of others, detached from my own self-interest. A man must compliment his wife for the sake of peace at home. The higher truth of “and you shall love your friend” is obligatory.

It is up to us to define the aspiration to love others as the goal of life. Without this, all of our lives would be false.

There are people who have a tendency to lie. They can also change. They specifically have a tendency toward creativity.

When advancing toward the truth, love of others, in the framework of the family, we go through all kinds of states. Each one must help others through giving a good example, showing that he is making an effort to love. How does one deal with a child who lies in the family?

Conclusion: If we define love of others as the goal of our lives, it is called living in the way of truth.
[135236]
From KabTV’s “New Life 324 –  Truth And Falsehood,” 3/23/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life - No Comments →

New Life #323 – What Is The Secret Of Success In Life?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Technological development has opened possibilities for success for just about every person. How does this influence the connections between us and what is the purpose of this development?

Summary

In the past, technology was linked to materials like steel and wood, heavy production.

Today everything is virtual, easy, fast, and dynamic. Creativity, brilliance, computers, and robots are what are important.
– Manpower is less necessary for humanity. Computers and advanced technologies are replacing and hastening everything.
– Start-ups, brilliant youth, biotechnology, three-dimensional printers. We print what we want.
– Within a short time we will succeed in extending human life.
– Artistic ability like composing, painting, dancing—in the future we will be able to “download” this kind of software into a person, and then the question will be raised, if everything can be attained through the push of a button, what is success in life?
– Only one area will remain in which we can be successful thanks to ourselves—building connections with others.

Computers and machines will be able to do everything for us, and the task of building a new society will remain for us.
– Today people and organizations connect through networking in order to be successful, but this is not the connection we are talking about. We are talking about building an integral connection between a person and everything that is outside of him—all of us as one family.
– When we want to connect as a single body, we discover the power of giving and love that fills all of nature. The perception of reality will be changed. We will see the eternal connection between all the parts, beyond life and death. And this will be considered true success in life, and not all of today’s games.
– This is talking about the transformation of the desire that motivates us from the desire to receive for oneself alone to a desire to bestow to others.

The material from which we are built is a desire for pleasure. We correct it with the characteristic of bestowal above it.
– I am an individualist; I bend everyone for my benefit. There is a higher power in nature that can upgrade me.
– In this process of upgrading relationships with others, there is a place for positive competition. This is the success of tomorrow.
– At birth, nobody is equal to others. But work on upgrading nature equalizes all of us.
– When we mutually complement each other, the wonderful uniqueness of each and every one becomes clarified.

Day by day science is discovering how much all the details and all laws are connected into a single system.
– To date we measured success egoistically; tomorrow we will measure success with how beneficial I am to everyone.
– If we don’t work on upgrading our relationships with others, we will not be able to use technological advancement for the better.
[135159]
From KabTV’s “New Life #323 – What Is The Secret Of Success In Life,?” 3/20/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life - No Comments →

New Life #594 – Tisha B’Av – From Destruction To Happiness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The younger generation doesn’t find a connection between itself and events that happened thousands of years ago, but they should understand that the significance of the holidays is not connected to history, but to what happens as nature evolves.

Summary

A very special person lived 5,775 years ago, the first to discover the guidance system that manages everything. His students followed him and this continued for generations after him. Everyone searched for and discovered God. Around 3,500 years ago in ancient Babylon something unique happened. People tried to build the Tower of Babel, which symbolized the intensification of the ego.

Abram ben Terah, who became our father Abraham, began to explore the situation and taught his disciples how to transcend that intensifying ego, the egoism that separates us, so that we could build a connection above it, because in the gap between hatred and love, the upper force is discovered.

Abraham tried to explain this to everyone, but most didn’t listen. Whoever did listen to him became the people of Israel. The group of Abraham went to the land of Canaan. The rest of the Babylonians were scattered all over the face of the Earth. The group of Abraham went down to Egypt, came back up and received the Torah of Moses, which is the method of connection.

The connection they built above all the hatred that they discovered between them, was called the Beit HaMikdash” (The First Temple)—the Kli of love. A moment after they reached the summit of this connection, they began to descend, and the relationships between them deteriorated again. The separation led them into exile. But at the end of the process, it is said that all people will reach a perfected connection. The system of management operates according to permanent laws, and the calendar indicates the forces acting at any time and date.

There is a period that is not good, this is the period of the “Three Weeks,” from the seventeenth of Tammuz to Tisha B’Av. At this time, the power of egoism dominates the world. Bad times and good are defined by nature, but humanity has the ability to transcend and dominate them. During the years of exile we were scattered among the nations; we caused the development of religions, commerce, culture, and more. We absorbed forms of egoism from the nations of the world that were not in us. Today our task is to become connected and connect everyone.

Building a connection of love is building the third Beit HaMikdash, and then the days of mourning will transform into days of happiness. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains specifically how we, having the greatest egoism in the world, can build connection. And then by way of the small nation of Israel, as if through a pinhole, abundance will pass to all the inhabitants of the world.
[162717]
From KabTV’s “New Life #594 – Tisha B’Av – From Destruction To Happiness,” 7/5/15

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, New Life - No Comments →

New Life #354 – Time And The Transience Of Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Why does the concept of time become very significant in our lives? How does it affect our development and how can we reach eternity by virtual education?

Summary

Time is like a policeman who constantly requires things from us and we are obliged to it.

After the age of 50 a person begins to sink and doesn’t have any great plans anymore. He lives in the present. There were people who wanted leave an eternal mark and became great men in history.

Old people feel that everything is about to end. Even if we live for hundreds of years this will still be a problem. It is not a good idea to concentrate the elderly in old age homes. An elderly person needs to be among everyone, among people of all ages.

A productive old age is when a person is active and contributes to the society he lives in until his last day. Elderly people can greatly help the young, especially in building the right attitude to life.

How can you leave an eternal mark? By discovering the eternal system of connections among us and by living in it. We feel alive when we get what we want. When we grow weaker and don’t want anything we grow old.

The force of receiving gradually diminishes while the force of giving which is aimed outwards keeps growing. Developing the force of giving during our life enables us to feel the eternal system of connections between us.
[147222]
From KabTV’s “New Life #354 – Time And The Transience Of Life,” 4/22/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life, Perception - No Comments →

New Life #342 –  Future Leadership, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Who is a leader in human society, what is the crisis in leadership today and how will Integral Education lead society to a better future?

Summary

A true leader is someone who sees the future, understands where society is evolving, and can lead it there.

– Today we have reached a unique time in which humanity must transform into a single family. This is the future goal.
– It is necessary to develop a sense of other people and the world.

Everyone must lead himself.

– The development of an integral mind and integral feelings is what is required.
– The next leaders must be educators who know how to develop a feeling of mutual connection in the public.
– An integral leader will lead a process of social education that will bring a sense of integral connection between everyone.
[141519]
From KabTV’s “New Life #342 – Future Leadership, Part 1,” 4/8/16

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, New Life - No Comments →

New Life 747 – Love Is The Building Block Of Reality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Even if we don’t identify it, everything in reality is divided into four phases. After the desire to receive is filled with Light it feels the oppositeness between its state and the Light, and restricts itself.

In this process we learn the relationship between man and the Creator is possible only after the person build a love of the Creator.

It is from this process that we learn that the connection between a person and the Creator is possible only after the person builds love for the creator. The main goal of our life is to reach the revelation of the Creator during our lifetime, the general force of giving.

This world is like a playground in which we practice developing hatred and love, receiving and giving. We have some desires like those of animals: food, sex, family, and some human desires: money, respect, and knowledge.

When a person’s ego begins to develop, he begins to ask what he lives for and then he discovers that life is aimed at a special goal, which is the revelation of the upper force that manages us. The revelation of the Creator provides a person with the answers to all his questions since He is the root of everything, the force of love and bestowal.
[190117]
From KabTV’s “New Life 747 – Love Is The Building Block Of Reality,” 7/14/16

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, New Life - No Comments →