Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is currently the single largest problem for human beings as a species?“

The very foundation of our attitude toward life, nature and everything else is our ego, which is a desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Therefore, our most significant problem is our desire to exploit for personal gain that we place above the development of positive relations.

We cannot continue by wanting to control everyone, destroy them, and then discard them.

We are depleting our planet through such an attitude, and it is the base cause behind all of our problems and crises on personal, social, economic, ecological and global scales.

Besides our world, we have nothing else. So, let us not delude ourselves, thinking that we will inhabit the moon or Mars or anywhere else. It is not going to happen. They are unsuitable for our survival, and moreover, even if we succeeded to somewhat populate them, what would we do there? We would destroy ourselves and those places similarly to how we bring ruin to ourselves and to our planet.

We thus only need to correct our attitude toward each other and to nature, to see that by following the dictates of our egoistic nature we bring ruin to ourselves, and then seek how to positively connect in society with attitudes of mutual consideration. The more we engage in developing positive attitudes to each other and to nature throughout society, the more we would activate the positive forces dwelling in nature to enter our lives, which would start letting us think and want oppositely to our egoism, for the benefit of others and nature, and we would then see a major positive transition to a new harmonious and peaceful world.

Based on the video “New Paradigm Approaching” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Chaim Ratz. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are American Jews and Israeli Jews enemies?“

Today, most American Jews wish to disassociate themselves with the State of Israel. If tomorrow, the State of Israel would cease to exist, most American Jews would regret it for no more than a few minutes, if that. They wish to associate themselves more with America than with the State of Israel or the nation of Israel.

By doing so, they feel more aligned with American society; and on the contrary, by thinking, helping and caring about Israel, they draw hostility onto themselves from American society.

Only through uniting above divisions do we have the ability to give the people of Israel strength, i.e. connection between us and with the great force of nature that ties and holds us together, thanks to which we exist.

Back in the days of Abraham, some 3,800 years ago, the nation of Israel at its foundation was a gathering of 70 nations of the world. Abraham led them out of Babylon and brought them to the Land of Canaan. Since then, we have the name “Israel,” from the words “Yashar Kel” (“straight to God”), i.e. those who aim themselves straight at the upper force of love, bestowal and connection.

By uniting toward a common goal, united “as one man with one heart,” above the divisive egoistic drives, Israel becomes seen as a friend—from the love of Israel and the love of your fellow man, we come to collective love. This will protect us because we then connect to the single acting force in nature.

Based on the video “Why Do American Jews Separate Their Identity from Israel?” 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: “Should we worry about a large asteroid hitting earth soon?“

NASA is working on trying to hit an asteroid that might make its way to earth. They sent a missile that is supposed to hit the asteroid in ten months, and will measure the extent to which they could deflect it from its orbit.

However, we do not need NASA or science in general to protect us from these threats that we perceive. The forces of nature are aligned precisely for our existence, and so if we need to be alive, then we will prevail.

We do not have to take nature into our own hands. We only need to reach balance with its laws.

If we correct our attitude to nature on all of its levels—the still, vegetative, animate and the human—then we will gain all the protection we need from all forms of natural calamities.

“Correcting our attitude” means developing an attitude of love, consideration and positive connection in every conceivable way. We need to understand that we exist in an interconnected and interdependent system, and we need to play our correct part in this system. The more we correct our attitude from egoistic to altruistic, and most importantly, the more that we do so in our relationships to each other, then the more we will let the positive force dwelling in nature into our lives. We would thus be wise not to worry about asteroids hitting us, but to focus on the place in our lives that we can change for the better—our attitude to others and nature—and then everything will work out to our benefit.

Based on the video “Do We Need to Hit Asteroids Before They Hit Us?” 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 does the future hide from us?“

We have been created such that we should build our own future from how we adjust ourselves in the present, and not draw it from various sources and wait passively for the future to simply happen.

We have to make sure that even in the present we currently live in, we operate in such a manner where we constantly construct ourselves. Otherwise, if we sit and wait passively for the future to happen to us, we simply let life’s circumstances determine our future.

We are formed by the desires inside us and in our surroundings. Therefore, in order to determine our future, we should consider how we connect optimally among each other and with nature.

We are all parts of a closed system that we need to enter into balance with if we are to experience it harmoniously. We should thus be interested in improving our relations in order to reach balance with nature, because if we make no strides in our attitudes to each other and to nature, then we will experience this closed system we are in negatively, through all kinds of afflictions.

Based on “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 21, 2021 and a Kabbalah lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 13, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is global interdependence? What are some examples?“

We were created as interdependent beings. The more we evolve as a humanity, the more we find ourselves becoming increasingly dependent on each other. We find ourselves depending on each other more and more in several fields of human activity, whether it be in trade, commerce, industry, communications, technologies, culture, science, and the list goes on and on.

Take a look, for instance, at how popular tourism has become in our times. Where does the interest in travel come from? We had no such interest on a mass scale even a hundred years ago, but such desires gradually develop in us.

Why are we made to be dependent on each other, starting from our closest circles such as to our homes and our families, and then expanding out to our towns, cities, states, countries, and the more we develop, the more we feel our dependence become global. Today, we can see several examples of how we have become dependent on the whole world.

Whether it be oil and gas supplies, various harvests and crops from different countries and regions, through to all kinds of cultural products that span different countries and cultures, the more globally dependent we become, the more we develop a need to realize our global dependence positively.

We cannot get rid of our interdependence, but we will become forced to change our attitudes to each other from negative to positive. That is, instead of infusing our network of connections with egoistic motives, where we each seek maximum benefit for minimal effort, we would instead seek to relate altruistically to each other, aiming to benefit others over our natural drive for self-benefit. We will then perceive our growing global interdependence as a great phenomenon, one that lets us exercise the “muscle” of benefiting others over self-benefit. The more we do so, the more we will start feeling a new harmonious and peaceful reality open up to us.

As a result, we will reach a point where we will feel a sincere need for the billions of people in the world, that each person is a precious part of a perfect system, and we will feel a need to fuel our globally-dependent relations with positive, altruistic, supportive, encouraging and mutually considerate relations. We would then also start feeling the positive forces dwelling in nature; it would vitalize our entire world with abundance and perfection.

Based on a Kabbalah lesson, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman from the World Kabbalah Convention, “Rising Above Ourselves,” on August 1, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are educated people more likely to be racist antisemites?“

In 1936, Albert Einstein wrote his friend a letter where he discussed the atmosphere of Jew hatred in American society. He wrote about the magnitude of antisemitism, especially in the academy, but also in industry and in the banking sector. He said that the enemy was everywhere; perhaps it could not be seen, but it could truly be felt.

Einstein mentioned how he did not understand how educated people, especially in the academy, could not see the extent to which Jews contributed to research and development, and asked how could they hold such dark ideas about the Jews?

The truth is that the more developed a person is, the more he hates Jews.

Hatred of Jews exists in everyone, including Jews themselves, until the Jews fulfill their role toward the world: to embody an example of positive connection, and act as a conduit for such connection to spread worldwide.

If Jews were more connected, the hatred against them would not only subside, but people would willingly wish to learn how to positively connect from the Jews.

By generating the force of connection among each other and wishing to become one nation, “one man with one heart,” then we can influence others so that they will also connect.

In the meantime, neither we nor the rest of the world understand that we need to positively connect, that at the end of it all, we need to all become as one nation. That is, connection is not solely a Jewish obligation, it is universal, but the Jewish people activate the process, and they need to lead it to a state where all will become “as one man with one heart.”

When the Jewish people will aim themselves at unification, then antisemitism will become a phenomenon of the past.

Based on the video “Kabbalist Responds to Einstein’s Antisemitism Experience” 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 is the main aim of education?“

The main aim of education should correspond to the main aim of our lives.

Why do we exist? We exist in order to achieve a certain goal. As individuals, we each picture a smorgasbord of goals to ourselves, but outside our individual worldviews, there is a much larger universal goal that involves us exiting our individual worldviews and entering into connection with the entirety of nature. Likewise, unlike the transient sensations we could feel whenever we might achieve various individual goals we picture to ourselves, when we achieve the universal goal of connecting with nature in its wholeness, we attain the complete sensation of eternity and perfection. We can and must achieve this goal while we are here in our world.

Therefore, education should provide every person with the method, means and guidance necessary in order to achieve this goal, to ultimately guide us to become happy, fulfilled and complete beings living in a perfectly-connected society.

Unfortunately, our current forms of education have no such aim. We teach people similarly to how animals teach their offspring: to survive, to raise a family, and to produce more offspring. We thus fail to progress beyond the animate level of existence.

While it might appear that we make sophisticated progress in areas such as science and technology, since we make no progress on a deeper level, to discover the eternal and perfect reality, then we remain at the animate level of existence. Our progress is thus no more than efforts to make our animal existence more optimal and comfortable.

Rising above the animate level of existence and becoming human in the fullest sense of the term means rising above our narrow egoistic desires and attaining the same overriding altruistic intention that exists boundlessly in nature.

Therefore, education should aim at elevating us to a new level of existence by showing a different perspective of life than what we are used to: that there is an exalted purpose to our being here—to become balanced with nature—and it is worthwhile aiming ourselves at that purpose.

While we raise ourselves to become more sophisticated individualists, nature gradually reveals to us that it has different plans: it brings us to tighter and tighter interconnectedness and interdependence. The more we progress without developing altruistic ties in our growing globally interdependent world, the more we will find ourselves suffering and intolerant of our lives.

Therefore, nature gradually brings us to the realization that we need to revise our educational aim, and together with it, the method and the means to implement it, because we increasingly see how our past approaches to education no longer help us navigate in a world requiring us to realize our mutual dependence in a positive and balanced fashion.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 24, 2009. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is Israel heading toward civil war?“

Based on research of countries in similar situations, futurist David Passig has discussed how civil war is likely to occur in Israel three or four generations down the line.

I do not see that there will be a civil war in Israel though. Indeed, however, what had once united the country has started melting away, and I see that there could be disputes and differences of opinions between Jews, but not a war.

How did we come to the ruin of the First and Second Temples, and the different states we went through? It happened between Jews. It was not the Greeks or the Romans who came to Israel to change things their way, but we ourselves did that to ourselves (for more on this, see chapter 1 of my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism). That is why I think that there will be no more civil wars, because we likely learned something from those experiences.

Nonetheless, we need to engage much more rigorously in education, in explaining who we are, why we are so different, and what we need to correct. This should be at least about half of what children in Israel study at school.

The unique correction Israeli society needs to make is in its understanding of its role toward the world, which is to unite above our differences, and as such, become a conduit for unity to spread worldwide.

It is important to note that unity does not mean that everyone holds the same opinions. Unity takes place above our differences and divisions in opinion. Israel should consist of millions of egoists who have constant disputes, and who are very distant from each other, and they need to learn how to unite above their differences and reach a common love and closeness. That is, on one hand, there needs to be the revelation of evil, and upon it, the disclosure of love.

Based on the video “Is Israeli Society Headed for Civil War?” 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: “Have human beings reached their full potential as a species?“

We will reach our full potential when we open our hearts to each other, and in our shared heart, feel a completely different reality above the limitations of our ego.

We will then be in a state where we will be able to bestow abundance to everyone with our thoughts, living in a network of such mutual connection that no one would need anything else.

We need only learn how to tap into the greatest energy source—the upper force. We can receive it out of thin air. It exists right here and now, but we do not feel it.

The upper force is endless because it is different to the receptive force that is our nature. We have no idea how a tiny spark from that energy source broke into our universe, created the galaxies, planets, people, animals and so on—that everything and everyone was created from a tiny spark of that force. Do you understand how powerful that is? We still cannot comprehend it to this very day. It simply vitalizes everything that exists.

How can we tap into this energy source? First, we need to understand that its qualities are those of love, bestowal and connection. By equalizing our form with its qualities of love, bestowal and connection, we then no longer pose any disturbance to it and let it flow uninhibitedly into our lives.

We will then realize our full potential—discovering the full extent of love, bestowal and connection between us and with the upper force.

Based on the video “How Humanity Can Reach its Full Potential” 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 will be the next major step in the evolution of the human species?“

We have been building our society for thousands of years, and have often resorted to fighting, killing and lying to each other in order to get what we thought we wanted.

We have reached a state where we understand that it is better for us, even selfishly, not to kill others because then we have no one to work with. On the contrary, we want others to be dependent on us.

Afterward, we feel that their subordination to us does not give us what we ultimately want. We realize that others also need to develop, so we become concerned with developing different societies around the world.

Instead of fighting and killing each other, we realize that everyone should engage in trade and commerce, as it is written, “go and provide for each other.”

Afterward, international trade, commerce and science start becoming implemented in that system. Why? It is because our goal while we are alive in this world is to become as integrated and interdependent as possible. We currently do not understand this, even though nature is guiding us toward increasing interdependence the more we evolve.

The laws of nature—laws of interconnection and interdependence—guide our development. One way or another, we will reach a state where we will understand that the best way to realize our interdependence is to be like a single family. In a healthily-functioning family, its members benefit and enjoy what each one adds to it.

When we try to become as one family around the world, we will rise to the next level of our evolution. In our current state, we become more and more interdependent, and our ego also increasingly grows at the same time, so we feel our growing interdependence as something terrible. When we learn how to redirect our egoistic desires toward positive connection with others, where we each mutually support, encourage and consider others above self-benefit, then we will start realizing our growing interdependence in a completely new, positive and harmonious way.

Based on the video “Humanity’s Need to Adapt to the Law of Nature” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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