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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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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New Life 713 – The Seder And The Birth Of The People Of Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is our situation today as a people analogous to the situation of the children of Israel in the story of the Exodus from Egypt? From what must we be freed to become free people and why does the Passover holiday symbolize the birth of the people of Israel?

The night of the Seder symbolizes the birth of the people of Israel, the exit from the womb that became tight and oppressive. Even today we are living in a world full of pressures that they say will advance us toward our birth into a new world. The night of the Seder is like a family game, like a theater, and it connects us as a people. On the night of the Seder we go through everything that had been said to Abraham in the “Brit Bein HaBatrim” (Covenant Between the Pieces) (Genesis 15:7-21). Abraham wanted to know what would bring humanity to connection and love, and the Creator answered him with the exile in Egypt.

Egypt symbolizes capitalistic development, prosperity, and their problems. Like today, there is material abundance in our world, but without spiritual satisfaction. Therefore the disorder of depression has developed followed by the manufacture of sedatives.

The Torah tells about what seem to be an external situations to explain internal situations. So that we will decide that we want to escape from Egypt, ten plagues for our ego are required because the ego is what prevents us from being connected and feeling that we are one people rather than there being unfounded hatred and division. The destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was the result of unfounded hatred, before we arose as a nation. In the meantime, we are an ingathering of exiles. Only connection and love between us can transform us into a people because the Light specifically comes out of the darkness.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 713 – The Seder And The Birth Of The People Of Israel,” 4/12/16

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New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How can we live a better life as individuals and as one Israeli family? What do we organize on the Seder Eve? And what can we learn by that in order to improve our life?

What is the Seder: We celebrate the discovery that there is order in creation, a plan, a program of development, a sublime goal.

In the beginning our forefathers were idol worshippers. Terach, Abraham, Egypt, and the connection to the upper force. This isn’t history. We celebrate the possibility of revealing the order to exit slavery and be liberated.

Humanity is led like a herd and does not perceive the order (“Seder” also means order in Hebrew). Very few understand and actually manage the order. Connecting to the inner software that operates nature makes everything go and leads to a good life.

Israel demands a new social order but doesn’t really understand what it is. This is exactly the feeling of darkness. The new order has to be compatible with the level of development defined by nature.

Moses understands the Seder since he knows how to connect to the upper force, and therefore he is the only one who can draw the people forward. He leads them to come out of the ego, ascending to a brotherly connection and discovering the upper force of love and bestowal among us.

We discover a common mind and heart through integral education, by learning the system of connections and through connection workshops. We are the slaves of the current social order: working, purchasing, spending, being in a constant chase! We are not able to escape this enslavement yet, but there is already a feeling of inner bitterness,

There are two trends today: growing external problems, multi-faceted crisis, and inner distress.

We will not be able to lead a good, healthy, joyful life without changing society. We need to connect and feel mutual guarantee among us. We are slaves to the social system we have built, to Pharaoh that forces us to live the way that we do.

Questions to think about: What manages me? What affects me?

We are the slaves of society, and therefore only the upgrading of our social values will help each of us. There is only one change we have to make: adding  the love of Israel to society, so that we will feel as one nation. We need a social-educational process: sitting together several times a week. We can also do it through the media.

Lesson # 1: The world is connected and integral today; all of nature is in a state of mutual complementation. Only man disrupts the balance in the world since he consumes much more than he needs.

What causes natural disasters, revolutions, and wars? It is actually we who are the lords of creation that are the most miserable. Why? It is because we cannot manage our ego. There are two conditions for managing our ego: rational consumption and good communication with others.

How do you communicate correctly with others? You rise above all the criticism that you feel toward others. In this way we reach peace, mutual complementation, and a truly good life. There is abundance in the world and the only thing we lack is connection. We can attain it by educating ourselves to live a new life, together, not under pressure or coercion.

A workshop for the Seder: Imagine that you have ascended all your egoistic feelings and that you are relating to others differently. Describe the new attitude out loud. We feel a new atmosphere among us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2,” 3/12/13

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New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the hidden meanings of Passover and the figures in the Haggadah and why do we keep the tradition for generations and celebrate the Seder?

Nimrod symbolizes the ego that erupted and separated people. Terach was a supporter of Nimrod. Abraham, his son, was against him. He realized that advancing according to the ego is a mistake. According to the ego a person who is more successful succeeds more. The opposite form is connection and mutual relations.

Abraham’s method was to use the ego in the opposite way, which allows a person to get to know his nature. A person begins to feel the force that builds the egoistic desires in him and to discover the Creator.

Nimrod and Terach realized that Abraham was ruining things for them. Abraham left with thousands of his followers. Abraham’s group moved to the land of Canaan. The ego grows and there are great disputes, but they try to keep connected above them. Ego and anti-ego: there is endless work that leads to the recognition of the source of life, of a new life.

Jacob’s sons represent different methods of working above the ego. Joseph represents the most advanced method. They went down to Egypt where there are the seven years of satiety, then the ego grows and Joseph’s method is exhausted.

These periods are called the levels in a person’s work above his ego, which are his help against him. Then there are the seven years of hunger in which a new king rises who doesn’t know Joseph. The ego has nothing more to gain.

The new ego called Pharaoh is very cruel. He doesn’t let us live and connect. A new force called Moses is revealed and says: “We have to fight Pharaoh!”

Nimrod is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Abraham’s method, Pharaoh is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Moses’ method. Moses is a special upgrading. We need the force that constantly builds a new ego in us, the Creator.

The children of Israel need to understand that the new ego is ruining them, and the ten plagues develop this recognition. They reach the state of darkness, the necessity and inability to connect. We drown in the swamp…the night of the exodus from Egypt.

We have no power to connect, but we have the power to escape from Egypt by a small force called Moses. This is an internal journey of developing the method of connection, the growing ego, and the gathering at Mt. Sinai.

The children of Israel begin to recognize God, the force of nature that is everywhere and develops everything. Pharaoh is the most cunning ego that requires the revelation of inner software that builds the ego. At the gathering at Mt. Sinai, the mountain of hatred is revealed, the Pharaoh that is among them.

Passover is when we begin to be a nation that is connected to the inner force that builds our nature, the upper force. The connection we feel among us is called the general soul, and so the evening of the exodus from Egypt is considered a birth.

So why do we clean for Passover? We clean ourselves of our ego. Hametz (leavened food) equals ego; Matza is the force of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1,” 3/12/13

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New Life 714 – Seder Customs
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What do the customs and symbols of the Seder stand for? How are they related to the developmental process we have to undergo as a nation? What is the exodus from exile to redemption that we should reach?

The Seder symbolizes the summary of the Egyptian bondage, the enslavement to the ego, to capitalism, to the endless chase. People don’t want to get married and to have children any more, which indicates that humanity has reached a dead end and we need a new way of life.

What do the symbols and the Seder customs stand for?

The Passover Seder plate contains the symbols of the states we went through in Egypt and that we have to undergo on the day we are liberated. The four glasses of wine symbolize the ego that develops in four phases, where the wine represents the Light of Hochma. The glass for Elijah symbolizes the force that brings us to love and connection, the peak of our development.

The verse we read in the Haggadah, “pour out Your wrath on the nations that did know You,” refers to the egoistic forces in us, that a man is a small world. The Afikomen, which must be eaten until midnight, symbolizes the upper force that corrects us that appears at the darkest moment.

As long as we think that improving our bank account is our redemption, we are not headed in the right direction at all, and so we are still in exile. We will be redeemed when we feel that we lack love and connection and we have to work in order to attain it. Instead of criticizing one another, we have to criticize ourselves, and to examine where we stand with regard to the rule love thy friend as thyself. So on the Seder eve we should think about the exodus from unfounded hatred and disrespect of others to connection and brotherly love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 714 – The Seder Customs,” 4/12/16

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New Life #368 – The Heroes Of The Bible: Yael And David
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The Biblical heroes Yael and David are human figures who, despite their weaknesses, act for the nation and its unity. What makes them special and what is demanded of them in order to win the battles of Israel?

Summary

A woman usually thinks about the wellbeing of her children. Yael acted for the wellbeing of the whole nation.

The feeling that the whole nation are her children is what gave her the power to act wisely and use her female power. Her heroism is in being able to widen her heart, to widen the boundaries of love and include the whole nation.

The idea behind the story of David and Goliath is that every ordinary person who follows his truth and the upper force will win.

A shepherd is one who leads the nation, who wants to protect the nation and to lead them to the upper force.

There is an inner war here: David defeats Goliath, acquires his enormous strength, and uses it positively. If one nation conquers another nation it absorbs its values and its spirit after a while. David is a hero for harnessing the strength of Goliath in order to follow his own way, in the positive direction. Goliath symbolizes the egoistic use of power, in order to harm people. David uses power in order to increase love. David was fueled by Goliath’s strength and then went his own way, toward love of others.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life #368 – Jewish Culture: The Heroes of the Bible – Yael and David,” 5/13/14

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