Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Road Rage? Shame Them”

Over the past two years, there has been a 20 percent increase in violent incidents on Israel’s roads. A few days ago, a couple crossing the street on a crosswalk was almost run over by a motor scooter. When they confronted the driver, he stabbed the man who confronted him and casually drove off, leaving the stabbed man to die.

A few days earlier, a motorcyclist did not like a comment from a car driver, so he knocked him unconscious with his helmet. In yet another recent incident, a driver threatened another driver with a knife, but resolved to slashing “only” the other car’s tires.

The spate of violent incidents is not something that a small country like Israel is used to seeing. In my opinion, the best solution to this problem is public exposure and shaming.

Nothing is more effective than hurting someone’s pride. The scooter driver who killed the man showed no sign of remorse when he was arrested. But if he had known that society would excommunicate him if he did this, that he would not be able to find a job, raise a family, or have friends because people would not want him around them, he would have thought ten times before reacting so brutally.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant for contamination. Likewise, exposure is the best cleanser for people’s misdeeds. The identity of such criminals should be known to everyone, including the details of their offense, and they should be severely punished and disgraced.

In addition to humiliation, the government and all the authorities should have zero tolerance for murderous bullies. There needs to be a consolidated, uncompromising effort to curb such behavior, and public opinion should support this policy.

Road rage can affect anyone. Especially today, when people are growing increasingly narcissistic and feel more and more entitled, they are more likely to become violent for no apparent reason. For this reason, I believe that only a powerful motivation that touches people’s most selfish interests can stop them from putting other road users at risk.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “75 Years of Indecision – When It Comes to Israel, Jews Are Still Divided”

Seventy-five years ago, on November 29, 1947, “a 2000-year-old dream became reality: A Jewish State was born anew in its ancient homeland,” writes the official web page of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the topic. “On that day,” the statement continues, “the UN General Assembly voted on Resolution 181, adopting a plan to partition the British Mandate into two states, one Jewish, one Arab.”

The following day, Israel’s War of Independence began, initially against the Palestinian Arabs, who denied the UN’s right to determine the fate of Palestine, and subsequently against six invading Arab armies. Israel won the war and survived against all odds, but its greatest battle has yet to be decided—the battle for the support of the Jews.

The nations did not want a Jewish state. This was clear then, as it is clear now. The Holocaust was a powerful lever to bring the world to support the establishment of the State of Israel, and there were other considerations such as the emergent Cold War, where the US and the USSR wanted to dominate the oil-rich Middle-East.

Today, however, there is no question that if the UN voted on the establishment of a Jewish state, probably not one country would say yes. The problem that the world had hoped to solve by giving the Jews their own country has clearly not been solved. Antisemitism is rife, spreading quickly, and the Jewish question that the Germans intended to solve through extermination is a mainstream, and worse yet, legitimate topic of conversation. Things are moving in a very negative direction, and without a drastic change, they will end the way all of our good times ended: in tragedy.

However, as I indicated above, our toughest battle is not against the Palestinians or the United Nations. The worst enemies of Israel are overseas Jews and Israelis who feel that the Jewish state should not exist, and they do all that they can to destroy it—from using manipulative and false media, to supporting terrorists and praising their horrific acts.

This inner battle is the toughest because in order for us to win, we must first be willing to admit that there is something more important than being right, and that something is internal unity among the Jews. Until we accept that our troubles do not come to us at the hands of the Palestinians or the nations, but stem from our own disunity, and until we agree to work accordingly and unite despite our mutual dislike, the aversion of the world toward us will only grow.

Today in Israel, the majority of the Jews agree with the existence of a Jewish democratic state. There are many who do not, who think that Zionism is a contemptible idea, but they are still a minority in Israel.

Outside of Israel, however, the situation is very different. In the US, by far the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, as well as in many other communities, the majority of Jews consider Israel a nuisance, a trouble maker that gives the entire creed a bad name and causes the world to hate overseas Jews for Israel’s “crimes.” These Jews, who adopt the Palestinian narrative hoping that the world will spare them its hatred because of it, actually saw the wind, and they will reap the storm like the rest of us.

Jews are known for being opinionated and obstinate. I am all for firmness of views, especially when it is supported by serious data and reasonable arguments. However, at the end of the day, our well-thought-out views will not prevail over the equally well-thought-out views of the other side, nor are they intended to. The differences of opinion are there precisely so we will rise above them and place unity above what appears to be sensible arguments. When we do so, we will realize that however sensible, no argument can win if it does not stem from unity and promotes unity. In the end, it is our unity that brings peace with the Arabs, and not the tactics that either side hopes to implement.ADVERTISEMENT

The reason so many Jews oppose the Jewish state is that they do not realize their own role, and how the State of Israel is vital for their success. If they knew that the role of every Jew is to show unity precisely above division, and that this is the only way the nations will accept us, they would look at differences of opinions not as existential threats, but as challenges that we can overcome only together.

When we do so and unite, we will become a model nation, a light to the nations. This is our calling, our vocation, and we will never know peace until we do this. No political agreement will grant us what our unity will grant us. If we do not unite, instead of peace, the opposite will happen. Therefore, the only way that Israel can truly win its War of Independence is by uniting, not by fighting. This is our ticket to peace.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Why We Cannot See Beyond the Universe”

Our universe, cosmologists say, began with a big bang and has never stopped expanding since. They explain that we cannot see, or otherwise research beyond the universe that inhabits Planet Earth. It is not for inadequate optics that we cannot study outside our universe, but because the laws of physics make it impossible to discover what exists beyond our universe, if anything exists at all. The reason that scientists maintain this is not because this is the absolute truth, but because they do not have the proper tools to explore beyond our universe. However, such tools exist, and if they obtain them, they will know what is out there and see it as clearly as we see each other.

When mobile phone manufacturers want to improve their cameras, there are mainly two ways they can do it. The first, and obvious way, is to improve the hardware of the camera—the lenses, the shutter, etc. The other way is to improve the “mind” that deciphers what the lenses capture. This is done by employing more sophisticated software, better algorithms, and better processing units to run the improved computational skills that “understand” what the lenses see more accurately, and in this way produce a more detailed picture using the same optics.

In studying the universe, we need to do the same. No matter how good our optics become, there is a boundary that they will never cross. To reach beyond that boundary, we must improve the “mind” that understands the images, which in this case, is us.

We perceive our entire world through a very goal-oriented mind, and the goal is to serve its own interest. If something does not serve this self-interest, the mind does not perceive it. Therefore, in order to grasp what lies beyond our immediate interest, we must embrace other “interests” and make them our own. In simple words, we must learn to care about others as much as we currently care about ourselves.

Think of our vision. Each of our eyes sees the world in two dimensions. However, when the picture that both our eyes see reaches the brain, it processes them and builds a three-dimensional image. If we were “stuck” with only the picture from one eye, we would not be able to see depth, and we would never perceive the world as three dimensional.

The same is true of our perception of the world. It is as if our personal perception is one eye, and another person’s perception is another eye. As long as we are confined to our own perception, we are bound by the limits that our perception allows, a sort of “two dimensional” perception. However, if we “see” the other person’s view and merge the two, our perception of the world will acquire an entirely new dimension and give us a much fuller and richer understanding of the world.

However, to achieve this, we must relinquish our self-centered attitude. The warped picture it presents to us is the cause behind every mistake we make in this world—as individuals, as societies, and as nations. Because we perceive others as opposition, we are trying to cancel them. If we realized that other people do not oppose us, but complement us, we would be able to embrace their perception, merge our perception with theirs, and create a whole new, and accurate(!) perception of the world.

Now, imagine that we could do this not only with one more person (a second eye, so to speak), but with every person on the planet. The revelations we would discover are limitless. In such a state, there will truly be no end to what we will be able to perceive through our multi-dimensional “vision,” acquired by changing our attitude toward others from self-centered to inclusive. The more we think about it, the more we will realize that the solution to our problems lies not in better machinery, but in better us.
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My new article on Linkedin “A Mondial Tainted by Death and Corruption – Does Anyone Care?”

It is hard to know how many migrant workers died building the soccer stadiums for the 2022 World Cup games in Qatar, but the two popular numbers are 6,500 and 15,000. Either way, no one cares.

In addition to the staggering death toll for two weeks of entertainment (if you enjoy watching soccer), there are persistent rumors that Qatar bought its way into winning the decision to make it the host of this year’s Mondial. Well, nothing new in this regard, either. We have not changed since ancient times, when people were served as food for lions before cheering crowds, or when people fought against the beasts for the audience’s delight. In fact, we have become worse. So why should anyone care if thousands had died building modern entertainment halls?

I admit that I am not a soccer fan. My teacher, RABASH, also did not care for it, but he respected the fact that it gives people joy. I can understand that and respect that, too. I also believe that if I were to attend a game and sit among the cheering fans, I might end up shouting at the top of my lungs and rooting for whichever team the people around me supported.

Still, I feel no craving to do so. And more than I regret the loss of life, I regret the stark apathy with which humanity accepts this. This apathy causes much more than the death of thousands of construction workers; it causes wars, brutality, pollution, exploitation, and every wrong that humans inflict on other humans and on the entire planet.

I hope that while people are celebrating soccer, they will at least think less about killing one another, but I am not sure that even this is true.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Family – the Next Gen”

A new documentary in Israel discusses a growing trend in Israel: open marriage. The film presents couples that express feeling stagnation in their marriage and wish to “vitalize” their relationship. Open marriage is only one facet of a much broader phenomenon of accelerated disfiguration and dissolution of the family unit in an attempt to “freshen up” people’s relationships and “revitalize” their lives.

I can understand where the need is coming from. Humans are dynamic beings. As such, they need constant changes and innovations. This has nothing to do with whether or not we are inherently monogamous.

The current perception is that people have families, raise children, bring them to independence, and pass away. We expect this to continue for eternity, but this is not our vocation; it is the vocation of animals, and we have within us something that does not belong to the animal kingdom: We not only live, we ask about the purpose of life. Whether we know it or not, our lives are dedicated not to living, but to understanding why we live.

In most people, the question about the purpose of life is still dormant, but in many others, and in many more people every day, it has awakened and demands answers. For such people, nothing is a given; they challenge everything and need to understand why they do what they do. It is not a desire to ruin, but the urge to understand, to comprehend everything that happens on the deepest level.

This drive is the reason for the shattering of our traditional social institutions. You find it not only in our homes, but in every aspect of our lives. We question education, economic systems, forms of government, religion, and family.

Even if we cannot find answers, there is critical value in questioning existing systems. Distrusting and shunning them liberates us from the shackles of tradition and moral restraints, and the sense of freedom allows us to develop something entirely new, which is not anarchy, but healthier and more fulfilling relationships. Such a society will be one where everyone is willingly and voluntarily committed.

In such a society, people are committed not only to their families, but to the entire community, and eventually to all of humanity. Moreover, they are committed to the same extent, and even more than they are currently committed to their families. However, they must choose this commitment freely, and they cannot be forced into remaining committed should they choose to leave. Perhaps it is hard to imagine such commitment at the moment, but humanity is headed toward it nonetheless.

In such a society, where everyone is committed to everyone else, everyone cares for everyone else and the natural feelings of alienation and suspicion no longer set the tone in society.

Family ties in such a society will be very strong and solid, but not because people are forced to remain monogamous. The whole purpose of the relationship will change, making issues of monogamy and fidelity irrelevant.
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Medium published my new article “The Climate Is a Matter of Attitude”

Ministers deliver statements during the closing plenary at the COP27 climate summit in Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

The two weeks of climate discussions at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, ended in disappointment. As CNN wrote, “The world has failed to reach an agreement to phase out fossil fuels … an attempt to address the biggest source of the planet warming emissions that are causing the climate crisis ended in a fiasco after a number of nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, blocked a key proposal to phase out all fossil fuels, not just coal.” While the members reached an agreement “to set up a ‘loss and damage’ fund meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters,” it will not reverse climate change or solve our major problems.

If we want to change the climate, we must change it on all levels, and first and foremost the social climate we have created. As long as it is negative, aggressive, and heating up, the global climate will reflect it.

We may be able to assist with local climate crises, but we cannot change the global climate with our current attitude. If we want to change the climate, we must change it on all levels, and first and foremost the social climate we have created. As long as it is negative, aggressive, and heating up, the global climate will reflect it.

The reason we hold global climate conferences is that the climate is a global issue. Everything we do, in any country, affects the global climate. Therefore, without global mutual consideration, humanity will not be able to resolve the climate crisis.

Regrettably, to work in global mutual consideration, we must develop empathy toward all of humanity and rise above the narrow interests of each country. We are nowhere near such an attitude. On the contrary, each country tries to impose decisions that serve its own interests on the rest of the world, and the result is a climate world war where everyone loses.

As is the case with every war, the rich and powerful countries set the tone. They continue to burn fuels that pollute the air and accelerate climate change, and nothing will stop them unless natural disasters become so extreme that they will force all of humanity to change.

As is the case with every war, the rich and powerful countries set the tone. They continue to burn fuels that pollute the air and accelerate climate change, and nothing will stop them unless natural disasters become so extreme that they will force all of humanity to change. In the meantime, as lip service, or perhaps to buy the world’s consent, they set up “loss and damage” funds to “repair” the damage. Such funds do not solve anything, and everyone realizes this.

Besides extreme weather and climate disasters, the climate crisis has another adverse impact: Icebergs that have been frozen for thousands of years, and often far longer, are thawing. And buried in the ice are countless viruses that have been reawakened, and for which our bodies have no immunity. Scientists are already warning that the next pandemic may actually come not from wild animals or human errors, but from melting icebergs. A paper published two years ago aptly named it the “permafrost pandemic,” and warned of “the risk that deadly diseases from the distant past may return.”

Indeed, if you look at all the crises plaguing the world today, you will find that none of them are local. Covid is a global issue, climate change is affecting the entire planet, rising energy prices and interrupted supply chains are affecting all of humanity, and even a local crisis such as the war in Ukraine has serious consequences for the entire world. The interdependence already affecting all of humanity will only intensify until we are unable to make a single movement, to take a breath, without affecting the entire world.

On the positive side, none of our problems are insurmountable. In every single crisis, if we only work together rather than against each other, it will disappear as though it never existed.

All that is needed in order to fix our every plight is to change our attitude and put humanity first. Since reality is global, so should be our order of priorities. Prioritizing humanity will not only help the entire world, but every single individual, precisely because we are irrevocably interdependent. If we continue to impose a narrow vision on an expansive reality, we will continue to collide with one another and with all of nature. If we change our attitude, we will change the climate, and we will change the world.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Free Iran”

The World Cup games have barely started but already, we have seen one of the most memorable pictures: Iran’s soccer team staying rebelliously silent while their national anthem is playing before the beginning of their match against England. There have been other protests in Iran against the regime of the Ayatollahs, but this one feels different. They are no longer only against the government’s treatment of women, but have become a demand to transform the regime altogether and open it up to the rest of the world. Despite killing more than 400 peaceful protesters, the demonstrations are continuing in full force.

The Iranian government is hostile not only toward Israel and toward its own people; it is hostile toward the entire world. Its stated goal is to impose Shiite Islamic law on the entire world, and it will not rest until it achieves it, however long it takes.

Unfortunately for them, the Iranian people do not share the goals or dogmas of the regime; they want to live as people live in the free world, where people can do what they want, live how they want, and say what they want within acceptable limits. In short, the Iranian people want to be free and feel free.

I have said before that Iran is a very ancient and very intelligent nation. I believe that if the will of the people triumphs, Iran and Israel will not be enemies and will resume the warm relationship that the two countries had cultivated before the Ayatollahs overthrew the Shah and set off a dark chapter in the country’s history.

Oppression stymies development. Only free people can grow and change and develop, and change is intrinsic to human nature. If not this time, then perhaps next time, but in the end, the Iranian people will free themselves from the regime that wishes to oppress them and bind all of humanity to its yoke.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “No One Wants War, but We Are Always Fighting”

A few days ago, Norma Livne, the host of the show El Mundo (“The World”), dedicated one of the shows to answering questions from my students. One of the questions was about the war in Europe. More precisely, the question was why, if no one wants war, do we always fight against each other?

Indeed, people cannot live without war. At any given moment, there is an active conflict somewhere on the planet.

If you think about it, it makes no sense. If you ask people if they believe that violence can settle differences, they will agree that it cannot. If this is the case, then I, too, would like to ask, why are we fighting? Is it to show who is right? But if this is the reason, it means that the stronger one is also the right one because he won the war. This is clearly the wrong answer.

In fact, it is not only wrong, it is deplorable and immoral. How can anyone believe that if you are aggressive and crushed your dissenter, then you are right? This is not justice; it is bullying. We are not even animals; we are worse than animals!

Yet, this is human nature. This is how we have been behaving since the dawn of time, and it will not change until we change human nature. When we decide that we are fed up with our egotism and want to try a different way to live on this planet, we will be able to think of more agreeable ways to live.

When we decide to give up our self-centeredness, we will discover that opposites do not cancel each other, but complement each other. Opposites do not threaten each other’s existence, they secure and support it.

Complementary opposites exist not only in nature, but also in humans. Just as spring has no meaning without autumn, capitalism has no meaning without socialism. The same applies to liberalism and parochialism, and globalism and isolationism. Each concept is meaningless without its counterpart, which helps define and clarify it.

Yet, the truth lies on neither side. The truth lies in unity and cooperation. Truth is what enables life. The heart and the lungs, for example, perform very different, almost contradictory functions. The lungs saturate the blood with oxygen and the heart streams the blood throughout the body and distributes the blood to the organs. In terms of oxygen saturation, these are contradictory functions. Nevertheless, only when both the heart and lungs function properly can we have a healthy body. The “truth,” if you will, is neither that the blood must be full of oxygen, nor that it must be devoid of it. The truth is that when the heart and lungs operate properly, there is balance, health, and vitality.

Truth, therefore, is balance, not subjugation. If we maintain a balance where all parts of society contribute their respective and unique shares to society, we will have a balanced and healthy society whose members are safe and satisfied. If we try to eliminate any of society’s organs, we will condemn all of society to instability, dissatisfaction, and ultimate disintegration.

Norma Livne, the host of the show El Mundo (“The World”) and Michael Laitman

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Cultured Meat – a Sensible Step for Civilization”

A newspaper article that was sent to me last week declared, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its first ever lab-grown meat product as safe for human consumption… The product is a ‘slaughter-free’ chicken, grown from cultured cells, which could be rolled out to the public in a matter of months.” If this development is commercialized successfully, and if the proper conditions for producing safe and healthy meat are maintained, and there is a big “if” around that last condition, then I am all for it.

Today most people live in cities. They rarely see the connection between the food they buy in the supermarket and where it comes from. If the vegetables they eat are grown without soil, or if the meat they buy comes from a factory rather than from an animal that was slaughtered in order to produce it, I do not think they care. In fact, many people would be glad to hear that the chicken meat they bought did not come from a real chicken, and no poultry was slaughtered to make their dinner.

Additionally, considering the cost of raising cattle and poultry, lab-grown meat and chicken will probably be cheaper to make and cheaper to buy. For many people, healthy food is a luxury, so perhaps this will make it slightly more affordable.

Also, there is a clear environmental benefit to producing cultured, lab-grown meat compared to meat that comes from animals. Animals need grazing areas, which not only deplete vegetation, but also destroy natural habitat for wildlife.

In the more remote future, I think naturally grown food will disappear altogether. It might be that people will buy boxes that contain food that cannot be recognized as anything we know today, that will be neither vegetables nor meat, but something else entirely. I have no problem with it, especially since I myself am not a big fan of meat. I am not a vegetarian, but I am also not fascinated with meat. As long as humanity manufactures adequate food, I have no problem with producing it in a lab or a factory, and I do not think we should give it a second thought.

What I do think we should think about is our attitude toward the things around us. We need to learn to treat everything with decency and kindness, and understand that we are dependent on each other on all levels, from the mineral to the plant, to the animal, and to the human level. If we understand how vital we all are for the perfection of our planet, how we complement each other, and how our well-being depends on the well-being of all of Earth’s inhabitants, we will conduct ourselves correctly and there will be plenty of food for everyone.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Who’s a Beauty Queen?”

For the first time since 1950, there will be no Miss Israel beauty pageant in Israel, and Israel will not send a contestant to the Miss Universe contest that will take place in the United States in January. According to i24 News, the decision “aroused many reactions, some deploring the event’s end while others rejoiced. In recent years,” the story continues, “the pageant has been criticized on the grounds that women are only judged on their physical appearance.”

I sympathize with the critics. I do not think that the length of a woman’s legs is a yardstick for her beauty. Besides, how can anyone decide who is the most beautiful woman in the world when every race and ethnicity has its own characteristic look? How can we compare the Japanese standard of beauty to the European standard beauty, and who can say which is more beautiful?

To pretend as if these girls are treated as anything but objects, the judges ask the contestants silly questions, which no one even expects them to answer sincerely. If we were to believe them, we would think that all the girls wished for world peace, and they are all deeply troubled by climate change.

A student of mine told me that the contest is losing popularity and asked why I thought this was happening. I was happy to hear about this; I think it could be a sign that we are maturing, and we are beginning to look beyond the physical.

It is time to start looking for inner beauty because at the end of the day, this is what makes people happy. When you search for a woman’s inner beauty, you will find that you cannot measure it. This is true not only of women, but of all people. When you search for their beauty, it is always hidden.

A person’s beauty evolves over time. It is defined by one’s connections with other people and with the environment. Beautiful people are caring people, people who sympathize with the sorrows and hardships of others, and want to help them feel better.

Such feelings are a gift, but we can also develop them. Once we recognize how self-centered we are, we can learn to change.

It is not a process that one can do on one’s own, but if we, as a society, decide that we have had enough of the Me! Me! Me! culture, we will be able to teach ourselves to think more in terms of We! and less in terms of Me! This will do a world of good for everyone. It is certainly a better way to promote world peace than conducting Miss Universe beauty pageants.
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