Question: From early childhood, questions like “Who is the best?” start to catch our attention. There are many TV shows where an adult celebrity talks with a young three- year-old child who must show how smart he is, how well he plays, or how nicely he speaks. The children sing and the parents standing behind the scenes welling up in tears.

They subscribe to the philosophy of competing and winning makes life complete, vibrant, and meaningful; it starts at a young age. What are your thoughts about it?

Answer: I’m strongly against it. After all, nothing can ensure our happy future except the right attitude toward connection between us. If  only these contests were conducted in order to show how getting closer to each other elevates people, makes them better and purer, and how much happiness it brings!

Whatever you may say, there were some good character-building examples in the Soviet Union. It is good to cultivate mutual help, connection, and support in people. This is where we need to direct a child constantly, even though it is completely against man’s ego, against our nature.

Although there were still gangs, rapists, murderers, and so on, all the same, in propagating the virtues of kindness, mutual assistance, love, and selflessness, in this regard, Russia was in some ways ahead of the entire planet.

Comment: However, I must say that the lives of these young talents who sing like Robertino Loretti, who were leading the pack at a young age, had very hard fates, not only in the Soviet Union, but across the world.

My Response: Well, they were promised so much! What they imagined their future to be! They are just children, they don’t understand how this all may come to an end and what it will be like afterward. When their voices disappear and they’re no longer popular, the audience no longer worships them as some kind of idol, that’s it!

Comment: Only a few have more or less a good fate. The rest of these young talents end up being consumed in this fire.

My Response: Indeed. And what’s worse, you end up boosting the child’s ego. It is not about whether or not he can be successful later in life with his talent. The problem is that he no longer receives the response from others that he used to receive.

He was developed to the point of believing that he will be receiving millions of times more each and every time. Suddenly it all starts to subside and the poor kid doesn’t know where to turn to or what to do.

Comment: I’d love to convey all of this to those parents who put their kids up on these stages with such joy.

My Response: It’s all great if you don’t know the tragedy awaiting each of these children once their talent is left without due response, without applause, once he or she is no longer popular.

Question: What conclusions can we draw from all of this? That these shows should be replaced by a different kind?

Answer: Of course. Transform them into being about giving to others. Only in bestowal can we find higher and higher states, when one demands more and more of himself without any possible return.

Comment: That would be amazing!

My Response: It is possible to show that. We can develop it further. We can promote it. What one would take out of it is less important. At least these examples will stay. Then one would not be left with nothing.

Question: So you support such a cinematic illusion to go on?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Comment: But now there is “reality television.” About life and truth!

My Response: It is egoistic truth. It is still a lie. It is finite. It leads to tragedies. But not here. You are shown the truth, and with your nature you begin to understand that you can’t quite implement this truth. What you are seeing are ideals. And these ideals are necessary.

Comment: So you’re against showing the ugly side of truth, of letting the garbage out under the banner of “reality TV”?

My Response: No. This would never aim a person in the right direction. After all, a person is an egoist. On the contrary, we must play with him the way we do with our kids.

Question: So that he grows through playing with these idealistic, beautiful examples?

Answer: Yes. This is just like a game with a child, how to make adults out of the whole of humanity! All humanity are children! So why wouldn’t you act with them the way you do with your own kids?
[278004]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/7/21

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Question: You keep repeating the same phrase: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and you say that this is the way to live. But if I hate myself, what should I do about it? Don’t you need to first love yourself and then your neighbor? Or is there something I do not understand?”

Answer: You are right. This is exactly what this phrase really says. You are actually on the right path to understanding the meaning of this great phrase. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” that is, you must love yourself and your neighbor as yourself.

You exist in this world. What does it mean to love yourself? Make it so that you feel good in this world, warm, safe, and calm. How to do it?

How would you do it for a loved one, as a loving person? Imagine yourself in place of everyone else around you Then you will see that the entire world is really just you.
[278044]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/7/21

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In the News (AssociatedPress): “The International Criminal Court said Friday that its jurisdiction extends to territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, potentially clearing the way for its chief prosecutor to open a war crimes probe into Israeli military actions. …

“The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in 2019 that there was a “reasonable basis” to open a war crimes probe into Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip as well as Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. ”

Comment: This is happening while thousands of people are being killed in Syria and nobody knows what is happening in Lebanon. Look at what is going on in the world!

My Response: It is the one thing that people least understand, but what should be clear is that when it comes to demands, Jews are naturally held to a higher order of magnitude than everyone else, a higher spiritual standard. This is because based on their internality, their internal preparation, the Jews must behave in such a way that all this in the world does not happen at all.

But if it does happen, who is to blame? The Jews! There is no doubt about it! If something bad happens in the world, it is the Jews who are to blame! And we need to agree with this.

Question: Is this your statement?

Answer: This is my statement, because otherwise there is no answer for who we are. Eventually we need to explain who we are to ourselves by ourselves. Why do we constantly try to say that we are like others while others say, no you are not like everyone else? They tell us that they have a special demand from us, that we have a certain method of correction for humanity, but we don’t show it to anyone. We don’t implement it on ourselves, and eventually all the problems and all the suffering that humanity undergoes are actually your fault.

It isn’t just our fault, but it is the result of our disrespect to everything that happens around us. We need to appreciate and understand our powers, our role, our capabilities, and the dependence of all of humanity on us.

As a person who studies the general state of nature, providence, nature’s plan, and everything that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about, the original internal methodology of the Jewish people and humanity as a whole, I would say that basically I agree with this approach. There is nowhere we can escape to. It is the law of nature! It is therefore pointless to resist it.

The Hague International Criminal Court? There will be a thousand other different courts and the consequences of their decisions will all be bleak for us.

Question: Are there only enemies around us and we need to defend ourselves?

Answer: We need to behave so that there will be only friends around us.

Comment: That would probably be preferable.

My Response: Not that it would be preferable, but that we must!

Comment: But in the meantime…

My Response: There is no meantime! We must begin to understand how nature is built, how the plan is built, how all of humanity is moving, how it is managed by one unique law, and what we have to do about it. We have the ability to influence everything!

Question: Does this mean that we are expected to start now?

Answer: Of course! We should have started thousands of years ago.

Question: And then this global mess would not have happened?

Answer: Yes. What is the purpose of all the suffering?

Comment: I know your answer.

My Response: There is nowhere we can escape from it! But I see how in response to what I write and try to explain everywhere I go, people brush me off. The Jews brush it off! We simply need to agree, to agree with the law of nature that has been right before our eyes for ages, which Kabbalists write about and not only Kabbalists.

There are no compromises in the laws of nature. We need to understand that we either operate as we should according to nature, or nature operates on us.

Question: What should we do so that everyone will be our friends?

Answer: We need to connect between us. By doing so we will not need to depend on anyone! No one needs to help us do so. We only need to establish the right connection between us. To come together all of us, to establish a normal state, that no one will want to run away from, to feel as a nation, to ascend above the divide and then everything will be fine!

Question: In the world?

Answer: Both for us and in the world.

Question: Are you speaking about this small point called Israel?

Answer: Of course, only about that. We don’t need to worry about anything else in the world. Everything in the world will happen as a result of what happens in this point, and it will also be so in The Hague International Criminal Court.
[258623]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/23/19

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Comment: The past year has not been easy. Everyone has different predictions for what lays ahead—from the most difficult to optimistic ones like, for example, Gates.

Great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, and  Churchill reacted to the threats of their time, of course, but they always looked beyond the horizon, whatever it may be, and turned everyone on with their vision.

Their rules were: “Take time to reflect on the future.” “Develop a strategy for moving from an imagined future back here, to this day.” “And get ready to learn, do not be afraid to change course and so unite the team.”

My Response: Not a single leader of today can implement his egoistic, personal program as those leaders of the past could. Today’s course is aimed at all of humanity at the same time! Those were leaders of nations. It was easier for them.

Question: Should today’s leader look at all of humanity?

Answer: Otherwise, he will not be able to understand where this is all going. Therefore, none of them is able to do anything.

Question: That is, if we say: “Take time to understand the future,” we are talking about the future of the whole world?

Answer: Yes. Because we have already entered the integral system.

Question: So a leader of such worldwide thinking can only be, by and large, a sage who views the world as a single organ, a single organism?

Answer: Yes. It is a person who was pre-created by nature in integral thinking. Otherwise, he will not be able to understand what is happening.

Question: And how do you come from this vision of the future to today? What do you say we need to do today?

Answer: I am trying to consider today knowing that the world is moving toward integral relationships, in a good way, bad way, whatever. It does not matter how many stops and what they will be, but the next state of the world is an integral humanity, interconnected and consciously aware that it should be together.

If we perceive the picture of the world in this way, then, we will naturally imagine how good it would be for us to move toward it. And for this we need an educational system, a system of upbringing, and a dissemination system. In general, there are many, many such subsystems.

Question: Is that why you are talking about the most important thing now—education? Is it in upbringing seeing this future?

Answer: Yes, everything depends on it. If we somehow get closer to this, we will be fine. If not, then nature will keep squeezing us until we realize it.
[277779]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/31/20

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Our intentions actually rule the world, they define the world. But these are intentions that we ourselves are not aware of.

Intentions are my thoughts about what I would like to see, how I would like to see the world, myself in it, others, and so on.

Today, if our intentions were manifested into the word, there would be no world anymore.

Question: So do we have the intention to destroy now?

Answer: Absolutely! The destruction of others, everyone, and everything.

Question: Is that why they do not manifest?

Answer: Yes. We are not given strength precisely because it would go to destruction.

Question: At what point will we be given the strength? What will we see then?

Answer: When we will have the right intentions in accordance with the plan of nature, then we will begin to receive the strength to implement it. The right intentions are for rapprochement, unity, connection, attainment of the highest level of nature, the revelation of mutual connection, and love.

Question: If this intention were revealed, what would we see?

Answer: That we are originally in a single system, and all our attempts to exist until now have been only in the opposite direction—to break this system.

Question: What should we do to reveal our intentions?

Answer: We should try with all our strength to break through the wall of this egoism that does not allow us to realize, to make any movement, to connect somehow, or to ask. The main thing is to ask.

Question: At what point will I ask?

Answer: When you see that you really want to, but you cannot.

Question: What prevents the Creator from simply giving us all this and that is it? Why does He need our work?

Answer: If you do not want it, how can I give it to you? This is coercion. It does not exist in spirituality.

Question: Should He bring us to the state that we will ask: “Give us the opportunity to break out of our egoism”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does He have to show us that our egoism is destructive, murderous?

Answer: But if He would show us, then we would simply not be able to exist. We need to strive for this ourselves, and then, to the extent of our striving, we will realize that we are in the opposite state and we will ask.

Question: Is our whole task to strive for connection, for unity, for good thoughts? Then we will see that we cannot do it and we will ask: “Give us the opportunity.” Is that the plan?

Answer: Yes.
[277817]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/31/20

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From a Viewer: Laitman says that we don’t need to destroy evil, but what then—let the Hitlers and their like flourish? Today, there is so much evil around, all ideals are destroyed, the world is ruled by criminals, only evil is around. How should we deal with it? Let him answer!

My Response: We must correct it, not fight it.

Question: Is it not a fight to correct evil?

Answer: No, it’s not a fight. To correct doesn’t mean to destroy it.

Comment: You said that evil remains, it must remain and not be destroyed while good is built next to it.

My Response: Above it.

Question: This is not clear to a person. How so?! When there are so many murderers and all sorts of “Hitlers,” as he says.

Answer: Redo everything. Nothing in the world can be destroyed—neither good nor bad. We just have to rebuild everything.

Question: This is not clear to people. Let’s say I see evil. What are my actions? I see evil, obvious, the worst possible thing. You say: Don’t destroy it. What should I do? How should I handle it?

Answer: It comes from the Creator. There is “None else besides Him.” He is the only source of all that is happening.

How can I imagine that evil turns to good? This is a problem. But this needs to be explained. Why is there more and more evil in the world? Because we don’t correct it. We are trying to destroy it by putting people in prison and killing them to eradicate evil!

We should do nothing of the sort! In no way can this be done. Only turn it to good.

Question: But criminals are put in prison, right?

Answer: Jailing is also wrong. Isolate them, but don’t put them there to stay. As it says in the Torah. You have to create for them such cities where they would live normally and provide for themselves.

Question: Please tell me, what does their correction mean?

Answer: They should receive such a dose of education that they would eat themselves up for what they have done, realize who they are, what, why. And turn into the best correctors and educators.

Imagine, having this practical skill and this past under your belt! After going through everything correctly and absorbing the right education—how much good they could do!
[276772]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/30/20

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Question: Doctors advise us to cry once a week. They say tears relieve psychological stress. When we cry, endorphins, which we lack, are released. Also, they say physical pain is dulled. The body produces enkephalins, which are natural pain relievers.  Sweat and tears help remove harmful toxins from the body, and tears help lower blood pressure. ”

It seems we should cry more often. Can you explain this?

Answer: Definitely. There is a lot in tears, in the very process of crying, in this little inner stress that tears carry.

This is purification. A man cries out.

Question: Does one have to cry to the end, and after that, he is at peace?

Answer: It is not easy. Even more so for men. It happens only sometimes when special exciting actions take place, when you feel that you are revealing something. But these are not women’s tears.

Question: Are men’s tears different from women’s?

Answer: Absolutely. This is where a borderline between men and women becomes clear—a woman cannot cry for male reasons or a man for female reasons. There is nothing to be done here. Therefore, we are two and not a single one. Our tears are different. We have different systems! In a male, it goes through the brain, and in a female through the heart and womb.

In a male, it goes a little through the heart, but mostly through the brain. In a female—through the heart and mainly through the womb. Tears go through these systems, which are called masculine and feminine.

A man cries when he realizes something special and his awareness of this special thing merges with his feelings for it. A woman cries when all this goes through her system. After all, they are completely different people. They are from different worlds!

Question: Then what does the connection of these worlds mean?

Answer: They do not connect. They unite only in the Creator when they rise above themselves in order to reveal their common single root. Only there can they unite, reveal the Creator, and each one truly reveal themselves in the other.

Therefore, there is such a special pull between us, the oppositeness of these genders and so on. This is a very complex system of relationships.

Question: Does the real union appear there—in the Creator?

Answer: In heaven, as they say.

Question: You are not a sentimental person, but when we are talking about your teacher Rabash very often I see how your eyes suddenly moisten and how different you become. Why?

Answer: I cannot do anything about it. Because the root of my soul is in him, that is why I am different.
[277248]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/28/20

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 Dear Michael Laitman,

I went through all the spiritual practices: I was a Buddhist, a Hare Krishna, I studied the Vedas, converted to Islam, I was baptized, and lived as a hermit for two years. If I tell my story, everyone would be stunned.

But for three months now, I have been sitting here watching your videos, unable to stop. Why is that? I don’t want to be disappointed again. What would you advise me to do? I feel like I have finally found what I have been looking for all my life.

Answer: Well, I congratulate you!

Comment: I understand his fear. He is afraid it will be yet another disappointment.

My Response: It all depends on him, not on Kabbalah, because this is the truth and is absolutely infinite, but on him. How much he is able to invest himself into it, in fulfilling the conditions for the revelation of the Creator and beginning to reveal Him. Then he will not have any more problems. But it can take a very long time.

Question: What is your advice for how he can stick to it so that he does not fall off the path?

Answer: He needs to seriously start studying, read everything that we have on our websites in the archive, and be in our lessons. As he reads it, he “flushes” himself with this material. It all gets absorbed, purifying him from the inside out, and so he advances.

Question: Is there a point of no return that he can reach past which he would not fall off the path?

Answer: No. “Do not believe in yourself until the day you die.”

Comment: Meaning, the Creator can play such a joke on him again that it will divert him altogether?

My Response: Yes. The Creator puts such obstacles before a person that he can only advance by faith above reason.

This is done so that he acquires a serious spiritual Kli, a vessel in which he can truly reveal the entire universe. This is an anti-egoistic, above-the-ego state. This is the creation of a new world inside a person, a spiritual world inside him.
[277599]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/26/20

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In the News (Gazeta.ru): Journalist and psychologist Alla Bogolepova wrote, “Tired. You see, there is simply no strength. I hear this from friends and acquaintances. I read this on social media. I see it in the eyes of others—because only our eyes are now visible, the faces are covered with masks. I can see it in the mirror. Endless, hopeless, terrible fatigue. Such faces are found in other deep old people, in whose life there is nothing left to hold on to. …

“What are we so tired of, because we have been living for a full month already, having dropped the speed to a minimum. Having done what psychologists have been talking about for so long: they say, do not slow down – burnout will come, you will not want anything at all. The scourge, so to speak, of modern society. Well, they’ve slowed down. On a global scale.

“The race for a career, money, impressions is over. And instead of enlightenment, on a global scale again—powerlessness and a feeling of complete hopelessness. What’s wrong with you, man? What are you missing again?

What are we so tired of? We live at half-strength, reducing speed to a minimum. The race for career, money, and impressions is over. Impotence, a sense of utter hopelessness. There is no tomorrow in the world anymore. Tomorrow causes only fear. …

“The virus of impotence – and its triumphant march – is just beginning. With him, of course, you can fight. But only there is no strength. You see, there is simply no strength.”

Question: She is accurately reflecting the opinion of many people. This is practically the mood of the world. Can we live with that?

Answer: The mask on the face covers the mouth. It is like a gag in your mouth. It means a lot. Psychologically, it simply means shut up! After all, we still look at a person’s mouth. We talk.

Today we see that a very serious communication device was taken from us: we must not just breathe through a mask but speak through a mask. In general, this is a very difficult state.

It not only covers half of the face, but it also closes people off from each other. They used to communicate at least in some way. It was customary to communicate normally. It does not matter what would be said to each other or what level the communication was, but today we do not have this.

People rush out to demonstrations, tear off their masks. It is like climbing the barricades. And they are ready to be infected but not in such a situation that they must put a mask. It is practically an iron mask. It shuts you off.

What will come out of this? I think we are being brought closer to a different kind of communication. It will not be non-verbal; it will be the same but much more explicit, sensuous, and truthful than before. That is, chattering will stop.

We will dedicate more time, more attention, and more feelings to words—what we say to others and what others say to us. We will want to put a little more of our heart into it.

Then we will feel that in fact this virus, this mask raises us to a completely different level of communication: sensory, more open, heartfelt. I hope this is the way it will be.

Question: This is a very interesting conclusion. Do you think that our chatter, our empty talk, is as if blocked for us now so that we digest all this and start saying real words?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What will these words be?

Answer: More measured, more heartfelt, more important. We will learn not to talk a lot as we have been doing all this time. In recent decades, it has been a continuous noise and dirty noise at that. Such muddy water, if you can call it water.

We will begin to say necessary, relevant words. That is what I think. That is how it seems to me. I would like to believe that people will devote more time to internal communication. That is, to convey in words what is really necessary to convey from person to person, a greater respect, a greater connection. The virus has a lot to teach us.

Question: Maybe we will start talking about true love?

Answer: No, I think the time has not come for that yet. We must realize all this within ourselves. We have to go through a lot of states: the revelation of the truth, the truth in us, what we want from ourselves, from others, what we would like to see in people in our lives, in humanity.

Question: It is as if we had set up an obstacle that made us turn our eyes inward. What will we see there?

Answer: We will see that we are vicious, egoistic, generally terrible creatures inside. Yet, if we want to correct ourselves, we will suddenly see that the virus will leave and we can talk. But how can we determine that the virus will go away as soon as we want to talk only about good topics?

Question: And the virus will return as soon as we go back to that garbage, to empty words?

Answer: Yes, long enough to teach us.

Question: I wonder if there could be such a tango with the virus? Or is no such direct comparison possible?

Answer: It would be nice. I think it is possible, of course, but it all depends on our states, on our sensitivity.

Question: Do you think that if there is no strength now, then there is no strength to speak about this emptiness, no strength to live without a purpose?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And what will the purpose be? Alla Bogolepova writes that “without a future we are like cars without fuel—we stand still and become covered with rust. Powerless, helpless, unnecessary even to themselves.”

Answer: There is a motivation to get closer to each other, to start feeling the effectiveness of life, not in opposition, not in competition, not in dominating, rising up and pushing others, but in doing something for others, for the sake of others, to create something, to build something, together with others, to create something new between us. Then there will be energy and a sparkle in the eyes, a new kind of communication that will come from the connection between us.

Question: Will this entire competitive world change then?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Remark: What about all the sporting events, first places, Nobel prizes, Oscars, Grammys, and everything else?

Answer: No one will be receiving them. Everyone will turn their back on them.

Question: Does it mean that I will not want to get a medal for first place?

Answer: No. There will be nothing like that. People will think about how to create connection and build a close network of communication between them. This is a completely different world.
[274347]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 10/26/20

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Dear Michael Laitman, 

Sometimes I have a feeling that I remember myself being still inside my mother like a fetus. And then I feel so good, all worries go away, all problems are resolved, you are safe, you are taken care of. Do I really remember this? Could this be? Or is it an illusion?

Answer: In general, this is an illusion although many people consider such a sensation of intrauterine development being reliable. As the saying goes: “Mom, take me back.”

But, in principle, this is not what we should strive for.

We need to strive to perceive the general force of nature, which is called mother, so that we place ourselves in it correctly and go through all the stages of spiritual development, which also are called: conception, intrauterine development, birth, nursing, and so on all the way up to our highest state.

Question: What is a spiritual embryo? Is it a feeling of being safe, in peace?

Answer: Yes. When you completely dissolve in nature, when you completely surrender yourself to it and thus progress in your development.

Question: Does a person spiritually begin to feel that he is inside nature?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Are one’s sensations very similar to the sensations of the fetus inside the mother? One only needs to move forward?

Answer: Kabbalists talk about advancing.
[277435]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/26/2

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