Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the Tower of Babel represent?“

The construction of the Tower of Babel represents humanity’s first level of egoistic development that took place around 4,000 years ago.

The story of the Tower of Babel describes people who, out of increased egoism, aspired to reach the governing altruistic force of reality, the Creator, which is allegorically described by their desire to build a tower that reached to the sky.

Humanity failed to direct its increased egoism toward the Creator’s attainment, because attaining the Creator means rising above egoism and developing contact with the altruistic force that governs reality. Their increased egoism made them stop feeling each other and their positive connections. It made them want to exploit the Creator, which is the meaning of building a tower that reaches the sky. They subsequently stopped understanding each other, and their oppositeness from nature alienated them from each other and from the Creator, and they dispersed.

In other words, the Tower of Babel represents a process of whereby we receive a growth of egoism—the desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone—which detaches us from each other and from nature. Instead of working to unite above our increased egoism and correct the disconnection that our egoism brings upon us, the Tower of Babel story discusses people who thought that they would be able to attain the Creator through their egoism, and not by rising above it. As a result, they experienced a collapse of the positive connection that they shared before their egoism’s growth spurt, and they started feeling hatred and separation from each other instead of feeling that they belonged to one nation.

Since then, we might have compensated for our detachment with various scientific, cultural and technological developments, but while we have developed superficial connections to each other globally, our inner detachment from one another continues growing due to our continually-growing egoism. We also find today that our abundance of scientific, cultural and technological innovations fail to give our desires any real lasting satisfaction, which is exemplified by the fact that our era has the most cases of depression, loneliness, anxiety and stress than any other one.

In our current era, we are reaching the realization that we simply cannot fulfill ourselves, i.e. our egoistic desires. Any fulfillment merely serves to extinguish our current desire, and a new desire appears in its place. The growing awareness of our egoism’s dead-end in our era shows us a new phase of the Tower of Babel: Where the Tower was once destroyed by the Creator, today we are reaching our own realization of its destruction the more we see our egoistic desires leading us to a dead end instead of to the progress that we once thought they would lead us to. In other words, we are at a similar juncture that occurred in the time of Babel, only now we are aware of our situation.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the meeting point of our increasing global technological, economic and commercial connection, together with our increasing inner egoistic growth and detachment in our attitudes to each other, marks the beginning of humanity’s connection into a new united civilization. We can learn from our past experiences and from the Tower of Babel’s story that if we follow the commands of our growing egoism, we will be led to destruction. In order to correctly realize our egoism’s growth, we need to learn how to unite as a single humanity above our growing egoism, which will lead us to a new harmonious and peaceful state the likes of which we have never seen before. It is my hope that we will gain wisdom and awareness and go the latter route sooner rather than later, and by so doing, spare ourselves and our future generations a lot of unnecessary suffering.
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Based on the book, A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah, 3rd Edition, by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Why is the situation in the world constantly getting worse?

Answer: I do not think it is getting worse all the time. We just start demanding something more from the world because we are developing. If we look at the current examples of world politics, we see that people are already beginning to understand that you cannot throw bombs, you need to somehow talk to each other.

I think the world is sobering up in some ways and starting to understand better how ugly it is and how much it needs to change.

Question: What will happen in five years? In ten? In fifteen?

Answer: I hope it will be good. People will understand that they have no other choice: they will either destroy each other or encourage each other. We live in a state where we have to decide what will prevail: good or evil. The need for this decision is already facing us.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz Questions and Answers” 1/6/23

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Question: A person can feel his body when it hurts. What happens with the spiritual body?

Answer: Everything we feel in our world, we feel only from some kind of pain, limitation, pressure, and so on, even the most pleasant sensations. Feelings come from the sense of the boundary.

In the spiritual world, however, it is quite the opposite. I rise above the sensations of my body; for me this egoistic boundary does not exist.

As a result, I stop feeling my body and this world in general because I annul the egoistic boundary and rise above it into altruistic qualities. This world begins to gradually dissolve for me. I see it not as material, but as still depicted for me. But in the end it disappears completely.

I have no problem with this, let the imaginary world disappear.

The spiritual body is my qualities associated with others, that is, what I build on the basis of adhering and connecting with others. My spiritual qualities are where I can treat others the way that the Creator treats them.

In such cases, I am not limited as well. My spiritual body does not give me any problems.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Body” 2/23/12

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Question: Can egoism temporarily take over a person who is not in attainment?

Answer: Yes, it can take over specifically in order to lower a person. The person’s job is to turn that egoism back into an ascent. Twenty kilograms of egoism were added to an individual, and now he must correct it by twenty kilograms of bestowal and love.

Why else would he get such an addition?

Question: What if he plunged into the ego very deeply?

Answer: Do not worry. The upper degree works in the same way as we teach a child to walk: we step back from him and wait for him to take a step toward us. This is the way the upper system works. We do not go far from the child, and this is what is done to us as well, although it seems to the person that he has been completely abandoned.

Question: When a person feels superior to everyone else and neglects them, can he unite with anyone?

Answer: If a person feels superior to others, he cannot be in a spiritual state. This contradicts the qualities of the upper world.

If the upper light influences him, he feels inferior to others, indebted to them, and treats them like a father would treat his son because the son is the central figure and the father takes care of him, and all the attention of the father is directed to him.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Egoism Uses Me” 1/28/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does anyone desire what is bad?“

We should first understand what is desire and what is bad about our desires. What is bad about our desires is that they control us and our intellect.

Desire—or to be more precise, the desire to receive—is our entire essence, and it wants to be filled with pleasure all the time.

What pleasure does it want to be filled with? It does not care, as long as it gets satiated, and so killing and stealing, and the exploitation, manipulation and abuse of others, could easily be what gives it its fulfillment. Positive altruistic actions could also fill our desires, but that is usually not the case.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this desire that enjoys at the expense of others and nature is called the “evil inclination.” It is evil in that it cannot take others into consideration.

This desire constantly bosses us around, making us cater to its demands, unaware that it is not actually us. It is a desire that exists in us like a virus or a germ, and it controls us.

We relate to it as if it were us, but it is not us. It controls us from within to our detriment because it makes us follow its demands when we ourselves would wish to develop differently. Instead, it leads us into all kinds of negative situations. For instance, even at the level of our basic health, our bodies wish to simply be healthy yet due to our desire for pleasure, many of us fill our bodies with all kinds of drugs, chemicals, alcohol and smoke in the name of pleasure that our desire constantly directs us to. It does not ask our permission, but it dictates to us what we seemingly want.

Eventually, via the accumulation of life experiences as well as various indirect supporting systems in the environments we encounter, a siren goes off in our intellect: “Wait a minute! What your desire is leading you to is not at all to your benefit!” It discerns that simply following the dictates of our desires has led us to all kinds of suffering and blows. In other words, the intellect emerges in order to balance out the desire to receive’s demands.

The desire belongs more to the animate level within us, whereas the intellect belongs more to our human level. The intellect is cold. It tells us what is right and wrong, but then it becomes difficult to activate in order to control our desires.

We can understand the difficulty of controlling our desire with our intellect from our childhood where our parents told us to be good kids and to study, but we only wanted to play and mess around. Later in life, we can say that our parents were right, but it does not help us at the time when we could have benefited from following their advice.

How can we, throughout our lives, the moment we have detrimental desires, control them with the intellect and balance them out?

Instead of having to live our lives in ways where we run after desires that constantly surface—which we end up paying for and regretting—the wisdom of Kabbalah offers an alternative: a method of reaching an experience of life where we realize our desires beneficially: balancing them out with our intellect in ways that lead to our optimal state.

Based on the video “What Is Bad about Our Desires?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: How can one overcome fear?

Answer: We can overcome fear only through friendship, by coming closer to others. Otherwise, it will overcome us more and more.

Question: What should one do about panic attacks?

Answer: It is possible to deal with them only if we create small societies in which people will support each other. This is the only way we can get rid of fears, illnesses, insomnia, and absolutely everything that imposes the anxiety of life on us.

Question: A person experiences mood swings and is afraid of everything that happens in his life: “What will happen to me tomorrow?” What kind of society does he need that will help him cope with this?

Answer: He must create a society where everyone would understand the need for friendship, cooperation, mutual support, and security. Otherwise, he will have to learn this for a very long time.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz Questions and Answers” 1/6/23

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Question: Were Jews recognized during the time they were in spiritual attainment? Was there any respect for wisdom?

Answer: There was respect, but only from the side of the greatest of this world: Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, such people who understood what it was about.

The Romans, being barbarians, did not understand the wisdom of Kabbalah, while the ancient Greeks partly learned it. In addition, there were many Eastern sages who came to study with the Jews. From there, all the eastern methods developed.

Basically, Kabbalah gave rise to Greek philosophy, science, and partly to the legislations of Roman law.

Nevertheless, the relations between the nations were normal. Each nation had its own attitude to life and to spirituality. No one bothered anyone. Only after Christianity and Islam emerged did all the problems, contradictions, subjugation, and religious wars begin.

The Greeks began to plant their religion in Israel, and there was a Maccabean revolt. But mostly it happened because of the Jews who themselves wanted to break away from Judaism and become Hellenists.

Meanwhile the Romans were barbarians who didn’t understand at all what they were talking about. They didn’t care who you worshiped or what your philosophy was. The main thing was to impose a certain system and collect taxes.

Question: Why do you call the Romans barbarians? In my opinion, it was only in their bottom layer.

Answer: That is what everyone calls them. But this is not a disparaging word. It just speaks of a certain philosophy of life or worldview.

The Romans mastered the tactics of fighting and constantly conquered new lands until, as usual, these lands conquered them. The same thing is happening in our time; first Europe conquered Africa and now Africa is flooding Europe. This is a common move; there is nothing new in this.

Question: What is this category of desires called Romans?

Answer: “Romans” is a very practical attitude to the world. Before the emergence of Christianity, they treated the world as an absolutely materialistic mechanism that works according to these laws. No problem whatsoever! If you want to make gods for yourself, do it, sculpt whoever you want. If you want a horse, make a horse to a god.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Respect for Jews” 1/21/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do most of the world and the UN dislike Israel?“

Israel exists in a kind of game, where no matter how much seeming good Israel brings to the world, with the many advances in science, technology, medicine and humanitarian aid, the world increasingly relates negatively to Israel.

We indeed need to receive blows and to be treated badly until we straighten ourselves out toward each other and toward our role in the world—to develop relations of unity above our differences and divisions. If we develop such relations, then the world’s attitude toward us would dramatically shift from negative to positive.

The rising antisemitism and negativity toward Israel can be likened to increasing pressure on a blockage in a pipe, in order to unblock it in order to let an abundance of delight and goodness flow into the world. Indeed, if we Jews positively connect with each other all around the world, then we would unblock that blockage and serve as a conduit of abundance to the world, and when everyone experiences unity, happiness and goodness, then the attitude toward us would shift to revering a people who bring unity, happiness and prosperity worldwide.

Based on the video “Why Is Israel Hated So Much Despite All the Seeming Good They Bring to the World?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there a risk of famine today? Why or why not?“

One of my students asked me about the possibility of global famine, citing a report where almost 90 percent of international food security and nutrition experts surveyed predicted that “without innovation and bold action, global hunger would continue to rise over the next decade.” It is indeed possible, and ancient Kabbalistic sources also state that in our era, we can reach states as horrible as mothers eating their own children. That is how severe it can become.

However, we should not relate to the idea of an impending famine simply in order to fill our storages and our barns with supplies. The fact that we can consider such terrible scenarios is in order for us to seriously concern ourselves with how to avoid such states in advance, and to learn about and deal with the base cause that brings about such crises.

If we investigate the core reason behind not just famine but any crisis that befalls us, then we will find that it is all due to imbalance in human relations, the fact that we are not behaving toward each other the way we should.

How should we behave toward each other?

We need to reach mutual understanding among each other, to establish ties that would help us reach a balanced state. Today, we are doing the contrary, regressing and thus rocking the boat we all share. The world thus naturally heads toward periods of famine and destruction.

The destruction that we can bring upon ourselves should very much frighten us so that we would change our attitudes to each other, and by doing so, change the world. That is the sole reason we can consider impending famine and other crises, and it is also the reason for our experience of crises and suffering in general: to bring about a shift in how we relate to each other, from negative to positive, egoistic to altruistic, and apathetic to mutually responsible.

What could be the catalyst for such a transformation?

I believe that there should be a leader that initiates and promotes it. Our world is tough without someone that human society would accept as their leader and follow, one who would discuss unification and how we could overcome famine and other crises. Of course, it would only work if people would listen to such a leader, and famine would emerge to open our ears to such a person.

Then, after a period of famine, we would be different. We would hold a different attitude to life and to its values. We would no longer underestimate the vast importance of our survival and what it means for us to survive in today’s trying times.

While there have been periods of great famine, wars and other crises in the past, today is fundamentally different because our current era is preparing us for mass awareness of the evil of our egoistic relations, which will spur in us the desire to change ourselves. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, such an awakening is called “the recognition of evil.” It takes an enormous amount of suffering for us to reach a state where we can sense our own nature as evil, to define it as such and to draw the necessary conclusions: that we need to put an end to our rat race of individuals competing against each other for material well-being, and shift to new positively-connected relations where we seek to benefit each other and nature, feeling ourselves as parts of an interdependent and interconnected whole where we each affect one another. We are still not there yet, but that time is nearing.

Based on the video “Is the World in Danger of Impending Famine?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. Do we really practice this in the world today?“

We can realize the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” in today’s world through education.

Education means filling our media, our schools, colleges, universities, and our cultures, i.e. literally everything that influences us, with examples and explanations of our need to achieve positive connections among us all.

If we do so, then there is hope of reaching positive social values and a whole, pleasant, good and perfect world. If not, then our constantly growing ego—the desire to receive that wishes to devour others and nature for self-benefit—pits us up against each other on a collision course to destruction.

We can understand the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” similarly to how an ideal family functions. In the beginning of creation, we were a single family. Today, we need to realize ourselves as a single family among several billions of people, which is possible through regular learning of our interconnection and interdependence. We are currently like a family that grew up and lost their connection, and we need to bring them together to talk about it. That is what we need to do today in humanity.

Based on the video “How to Make ‘Love Your Neighbor as Yourself’ a Reality in Today’s World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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