Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there something Jews can do to lower antisemitism?“

We Jews need to first understand the reason for antisemitism: that it is due to us not performing our obligatory role in humanity.

If we would reach our completion, which is a state of absolute friendship according to the rule “Love your friend as yourself,” then we would bring balance and calm to nature’s colliding forces. This is our destiny, our responsibility and our role toward the world, which is also described in the Torah. Also, it has no connection to religious belief. It is all about the attitude of “Love your friend as yourself,” which requires no rituals or ceremonies. We simply have to achieve a heart-to-heart connection from person to person, and show that to everyone.

We need to realize the immense importance of our attitudes to each other. Human connection is nature’s highest degree, and our nation was founded on realizing the principle of human connection—“Love your friend as yourself”—and by doing so, become a conduit of such connection toward humanity, which is the meaning of us becoming “a light unto the nations.” Therefore, the more divided we are, the more antisemitism rises; and the closer we are to each other, then likewise the more the world would relate positively to us.

Based on the video “An Overview of the World’s Current State – David A. Rosenthal Interviews Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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It is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained; . . . the individual who has not staked his or her life may, no doubt, be recognized as a person; but he or she has not attained the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel).

Question: Is Hegel correct that if a person did not risk his life in war, for example, he does not have a normal self-consciousness; he is not advanced by evolution? Is it necessary to feel the risk of losing one’s life in order to come to self-knowledge?

Answer: The risk of the loss of life must be felt. But in the name of what? What do we mean by life, by understanding the loss of life? This all needs to be well grasped. Otherwise, these are beautiful empty words.

The animalistic fear of losing one’s life, in principle, does not give anything. All animals have it. And here, it means something that lifts us higher.

Question: What does it mean to a Kabbalist “to lose life”?

Answer: To lose life means to lose connection with the property of bestowal and love, with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 3/4/22

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Question: Peter asks: “How can we ask the Creator to be merciful? There is enough blood already, what does He want from us?”

Answer: He wants you to be like Him, that is, to first realize that He is the only one who commands everything and that everything depends only on Him, so that people turn only to Him, to the Creator.

And if you want to turn to Him, you must be together. Together! Together even with the most hated opponents, whatever they may be. If you cannot approach a stranger, some person you hate, and hug him and turn to the Creator, you must start from afar, but gradually, with the intention of approaching, embracing, and turning to the Creator. Without this, the Creator will not hear you.

The Creator stands behind your hater, the enemy, behind him. If you want to turn to the Creator, you must somehow pierce the heart of your enemy with your attitude.

Question: Does he have to pierce his heart first to get close to the enemy?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: But this is an unbearable condition.

My Response: If this is an unbearable condition, it means we will die. From century to century.

Question: Do you think this is the main condition?

Answer: Yes! It should become such that I am obliged to see my beloved people in everyone, moreover, parts of the Creator, His messengers and representatives. If I treat everything around me in this way, then I will suddenly see that the Creator is clothed in them. He is in them, fills them, and in general, it is all Him. Everything!

Question: An ordinary person hears you, and everything turns upside down inside him. He says: “It is not just impossible, it is completely crazy.” What should he do, a person like that?

Answer: Turn over!

Question: And here I should also ask the Creator: “Give me the opportunity to roll over”?

Answer: Of course! Who am I? Some small selfish part that is not capable of anything.

Question: That is, I am able to do that only if I turn to the Creator with my wish to roll over and approach my enemy, embrace him, and raise a prayer together with him?

Answer: I ask the Creator to allow me to do this, to show me, teach me, and push me, and that my opponent would also want the same and would agree with me.

Because I see both myself and the enemy as an action of the Creator. That the Creator guides us against each other like this, pushes us against each other, incites us. And so I ask the Creator to bring us closer, to open my enemy’s arms instead of his fists so that we gradually show our love for each other. Up to real love.

Comment: If the world would hear you…

My Response: If people want it; that is the problem. And the Creator, He is ready for it if people want it. Whether they want to or not depends on the suffering they feel.

Comment: The cup overflows, of course.

My Response: We have no idea how overflowing the egoistic cup is. How much grief you can pour into it! A sea can enter there, and you as if notice, something may have appeared at the bottom there.

Question: If so, what is the solution?

Answer: Continue! Yes, selfishness is infinite, just like altruism. And we must connect them correctly. We do not destroy one at the expense of the other; we only have to connect them correctly.

Question: Hatred with love, egoism with altruism?

Answer: Yes, just raise one above the other. Not hate over love, but love over hate. This is called “love will cover all crimes.” And without hatred and suffering, love will not be felt.

So, we must cherish and store hatred. Add a little more here and a little more there. This is the kind of hatred we lack here. Oh, it feels so good! Now I understand how much I can love because some other hatred has manifested itself.

Question: And I have the opportunity to love more?

Answer: Yes. It is a game.

Comment: But in fact, this is a life and death game.

My Response: Actually, nothing can be said about it until we start to implement it seriously. But when we finish, we will understand that it was right, and the Creator was right, that this is how He created the world. Justification is complete only at the end.

Then we will be absolutely righteous. Because we justify. Righteous comes from the word “justifying all the actions of the Creator.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/3/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is Israel against the Iran nuclear deal?“

The Iran nuclear deal will pour a lot of money into Tehran, strengthen its power and status, and Israel predicts that such an agreement will be very bad for itself, that it will bring Iran closer to having a nuclear bomb, and will enable Iran to continue spreading terrorism. Moreover, since the United States is currently considered Israel’s greatest ally, such a deal also shows that Israel will be left to deal with Iran on its own in case of an existential threat.

Indeed, Israel can rely on nobody. America is no friend of Israel, and in general, Israel has no friends. It shows that only Israel itself can establish its own protection.

In my opinion, I want no protection from anyone but myself. Our certainty about our future lies in the mutual support of both our spiritual and our corporeal degrees.

What is this support of both our corporeal and spiritual degrees?

On the corporeal degree, it means that we develop this weapon ourselves, and on the spiritual degree, it means that we become equipped with a spiritual weapon. A spiritual weapon is the force of human connection. If we activate such a force, then we can reach a state where the Iranian people, including their government and everyone else, will want to connect with us wholeheartedly and devotedly.

Based on the video “How Can Israel Protect Itself from a Nuclear Iran?” 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: “What thoughts or attitudes are helpful with stress management?“

Life—both our own lives and life on all biological levels—is in constant stress. It is because life is a clash of opposites and their combinations, and it unfolds on the boundary between plus and minus, positive and negative.

Stress is thus neither bad nor good. It is a necessary aspect of life. We should thus focus on how to best manage our lives with its necessary stress.

We were given brains and our social environment in order to adapt ourselves and manage stress properly. We can manage stress by understanding the necessity of the combination of plus and minus at all levels and in all circumstances, and seek how to reach balance between these poles. On our human level, we reach a balance between positive and negative forces by creating an attitude of love, giving and connection over hatred, reception and division.

As with the necessity of stress, there is also a necessity to feel negative sensations of hatred, rejection and division. Why? It is in order to rise above these sensations and cover them with their positives of love, giving and connection.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method for covering the negative with the positive. Using this method, we become aware of the negative sensations that surface in us, and learn how to establish positive attitudes upon them so that they exist in addition to each other. In Kabbalah, this tendency is described as the correspondence of darkness to light.

The more we learn about the necessity for the coexistence of positive and negative forces, and that their correct combination creates life, then the calmer and more reasonable we become. We then progress along what Kabbalah calls “the middle line,” accordingly constructing ourselves and our world in balance.

We learn how to become aware of the source of every state, how nature creates everything in order for us to balance negative qualities and states with positive ones. When we reach this level of awareness, we then start relating to everything and everyone out of absolute kindness. We do not deny any negative sensation, but we accept everything as necessary.

Even the most negative sensations such as hatred are necessary in order for us to rise above them, to simultaneously exist above and inside them. To put it simply, we should keep in mind the formula that “minus equals plus.” In other words, wherever we see a “minus”—the surfacing of a divisive drive—we should see a “plus”—an opportunity to positively connect above the divisive drive.

If we exercise changing our attitude to the world in such a way, by replacing our divisive drives with unifying tendencies, egoism with altruism, and hatred with love, then everything will turn out fine. If we fail to do so, then our divisions and hatred will proliferate in the world, causing us much suffering.

Based on “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur on December 23, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “https://www.quora.com/Did-humans-come-from-apes/answer/Michael-Laitman-4“

Our bodies evolved from apes, but our sense of self originates in the upper force. In other words, our bodies are outcomes of development on the animal level, and the human part of us is given to us from a higher level of nature, which is called the “human” or “speaking” level in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Our sense of self is positioned between the animate level of existence and the higher level of the upper force. Kabbalistic texts such as The Book of Zohar, written 2,000 years ago, and the writings of Kabbalist Isaac Luria (the Ari), written 600 years ago—both before Darwin—explain how the human body originated from apes, as well as how other levels evolved out of one another: inanimate to vegetative, and vegetative to animate.

Apes represent an intermediary state between animals and the human body. However, the human self has no connection to apes, nor to the human body.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Theater of the Absurd” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 18, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the significance of Jerusalem?“

Various primary sources state that in the future, Jerusalem will become a beacon for the peoples of the world, and they will rush to its light, as it is written: “And nations shall go by your light” (Isaiah 60:3).

The idea of ​​harmonious connection among people and with nature is originally in the universe’s structure. However, such harmony will manifest only after the correction of all its parts, when everyone strives for unity and sees that unity is the center, the symbol and the goal of creation.

We will then know the true significance of the great city of Jerusalem.

There is a concept of rebuilding Jerusalem within ourselves. It means creating within ourselves the quality and movement toward human connection so that we would feel each other as one and become a single whole.

This single quality, into which our individual qualities and hearts will unite, will be called “Jerusalem.” The first step toward such unity is the elimination of egoism, i.e. the desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Based on KabTV’s “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Michael Sanilevich on February 22, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
The video is the film, “Jerusalem of the Heart,” directed by Semion Vinokur—a recommended film for learning about the spiritual meaning of Jerusalem.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I get my prayers answered?“

The Creator hears every request, demand and cry—every prayer. But indeed, which ones does He answer?

Our prayers get answered to the extent in which our prayers align with the Creator’s plan and His wishes for us.

What does the Creator wish for us? He wishes for us to positively connect with each other in equivalence with His very quality of love.

No matter how conflicted, divided and hateful we might be toward each other, we will all have to mature and realize the loftiest state that has been prepared for us: one of absolute love for each other.

Love comes about when we undergo a revolutionary shift in our attitudes to each other. It is when we become supportive and encouraging of one another and when we each aim to fulfill each other. In other words, love is when we switch from thinking only about ourselves to thinking about benefiting everyone outside of us.

A prayer to reach such love gets answered. However, it needs to be from the depths of the heart, that we genuinely want only the best for others, and not that we just say words in that vein.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman” on March 3, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Sylvain Brison on Unsplash

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are some characteristics of the 20th Century?“

Mid-20th Century, humanity started feeling that it was entering into a meaningless period of existence. Social and political scientists started realizing that humanity was losing the hope for a happier, better and easier future, which it once had.

Before that time, if people had no aspirations for some kind of spiritual fulfillment, then they aspired for material fulfillment. People were more interested in art and culture, and hoped for a change in the social order in order to safeguard their later years. In other words, people had a few needs from life and the world, and trusted that they would find fulfillment and happiness in the future.

Until the mid-20th Century, the human ego was undergoing constant growth, and it motivated people to regularly seek out new and different kinds of fulfillment. Humanity thus ran around like a dog chasing its tail. However, since the mid-20th Century, the hope faded. The dog no longer sees the tail it was chasing. It no longer knows where to run. It is confused. This period started becoming prominent from the mid-20th Century, and it has become a defining characteristic of humanity’s current state.

Based on KabTV’s “Close -Up. Theater of the Absurd” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Atanas Teodosiev on Unsplash

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Comment: Sevens writes: “Hello! What if there is hatred on both sides, on your side and on the opponent’s side? And if you show love for the other side, then they will take advantage of you. What should I do?”

My Response: Or maybe they will not. In fact, when you show love it’s somehow disarming. What can this opponent do and what can he give? And then there is already some kind of confusion. You should try it.

Question: So you think that if in spite of everything one directs love to another, it can disarm?

Answer: We need to choose the right moment and we need to first check with whom and how to show it. It is not necessary that you get the right reverse attitude from the other. But in general this is a good technique.

Question: So you have to be careful, but you should use this technique? Sooner or later, do you think it will be the main method of humanity?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because love disarms and deprives others as well as yourself of the evil energy.

Question: Why can’t we do it today? We really want to and cannot.

Answer: We are not accustomed to this. This should be included in the methods of upbringing. I had a very interesting case in my youth. I bullied one girl and brought my fist to her nose. She kissed it and it shocked me! I still can’t forget about it!

It was 65 to 70 years ago. Imagine! And to this day when I remember it, I feel how unexpected it was for me and how it simply disarmed me. I didn’t know what to do. I stood as confused as if a tub of dirt had been poured on me! I felt who I was. This is terrible! And such a simple action without words, without anything.

The state is terrible!

Comment: It is terrible, but it seems necessary. And it remains in a person for the rest of his life?

My Response: Yes, it is in me! It comes back to my memories.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/10/22

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