Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is balance with nature?“
Balance with nature means discovering sensations of love, mutuality and support in our connections. By doing so, we connect with the inner force and foundation of nature—the quality of love and giving.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can we save the world from war and establish peace?“
Humanity idealizes peace, but in practice, we are far from establishing peace. From our experience in over thousands of years of development, we see how unrealistic it is to seek peace between nations and societies. On the contrary, the more we discuss peace, the more we see war.
What is peace? It is common to think of peace as a state of no war. But is that what peace really is?
The word for peace in Hebrew (“Shalom”) comes from the word for completion, wholeness and perfection (“Shlemut”). That is, the way to the achievement of wholeness and perfection is a way of understanding how, on one hand, we are divided according to our inborn self-aimed desires, but if we aim at reaching a common goal of wholeness and perfection among human society, then we will discover how to make connections between us above our divisions and differences.
Therefore, the way to peace first requires an upgrade in education. We first need to understand what peace is and why we are at war. Our war is bigger than what nations and armies enter into at various times, but according to our nature, we are all in a constant war and struggle with each other. We thus need to learn about nature and human nature, to understand the extent in which we are egoists by nature, how we each wish to use other people and nature for personal gain. Also, we need to see how our egoistic nature is constantly growing, and the more humanity develops, the crueler we become, wishing to succeed on account of other people and nature. We need to look no further than history’s unfolding events to see its proof.
What can we do about it? If we agree with simply letting ourselves flow with our nature, we will eventually reach an impasse where we will see an increasingly dark cloud hover over our lives, and the lives of our future generations. Going with the flow of our egoistic nature will lead to our planet’s destruction, and to several more wars, conflicts and suffering on personal, social and global scales.
We thus need to first learn about our nature, the range of our capabilities and our limitations, how nature operates on us at every moment, and how can we best respond to the impulses we receive from nature.
The first step toward peace is to advance in self-awareness, to understand who and what we are, the range of our ability to affect our destiny, and how to optimally direct ourselves as we head into the future. In other words, we first need to correctly situate ourselves in the world, the nature and the realiry we are in. When we understand how we become activated, and how we can influence the system we are parts of, then we can start taking steps on a path of peace toward discovering wholeness and perfection among our connections.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Question: Why in many cultures and religions does a woman rank lower than a man?
Answer: It is because all cultures and religions are egoistic and since the male part is similar to the Creator and the female part is similar to the creature, so the woman is supposedly in a lower rank.
Comment: I suppose that in some areas women have more of a prerogative than men. For example, during pregnancy, only the woman becomes the “mistress of the house” of the fetus and can decide from her own freewill whether to have an abortion or not, without asking the man.
My Response: We are not talking about prerogatives that nature has determined for us. Whether a man or a woman, we do what we want with our body; this has no pertinence to us.
Question: What are the left and right reins in spiritual work and what is the whip if I want to control and manage my “horse,” the ego?
Answer: There are many components here in the cart, in the wagon, in the person and in the reins. This is a complete system that is called a spiritual Partzuf. This entire system is actually a metaphor for the soul, and we will learn about it.
Question: How should a man support a woman in a relationship, and vice versa, how can a woman support a man?
Answer: It is simply up to them to understand each other and to try to give the other the opportunity to learn and support him or her. I would not want to talk about more than that, otherwise you will ruin everything. You might begin by helping each other in such a way that nothing will be left of your group, it will seem to you that this is so simple. The wisdom of Kabbalah exerts such enormous forces among us that you simply have to be careful! In no way should you make definitive movements.
[247781]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/3/19
Related Material:
The Mystery Of The Unification Of The Masculine And Feminine, Part 15
The Mystery Of The Unification Of The Masculine And Feminine, Part 14
The Mystery Of The Unification Of The Masculine And Feminine, Part 13
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who is at wrong, and right, about the Israel-Palestine conflict? Is it much more complex?“
The solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict lies in the hands of the people of Israel.
In order to understand how the people of Israel hold the solution to this ongoing conflict, we need to understand their role, and the feedback they receive according to the realization—or lack of realization—of their role.
The roots of the people of Israel can be traced back some 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon when people from different parts of Babylon gathered under Abraham’s guidance. Abraham led them to attain a special unified state, according to the tenet, “Love your friend as yourself.” In other words, the roots of the Jewish people are ideological, not biological, and thus, unlike other nations, there is always a question mark lingering over this people.
Ancient Babylon characterized a society that was being torn apart by an overblown ego, and those who gathered around Abraham felt a certain need to rise above the social divisions of the time. When they united to realize relations of mutual love among each other, they acquired the name “the people of Israel,” where “Israel” comes from two words, “Yashar Kel” (“straight to God”), which means that the principle characteristic of this group was their inclination to aim themselves directly at the positive force of love and giving dwelling in nature, and through the increasingly unified states that they achieved, they revealed that force in their connections.
Since the people of Israel once attained a level of unity above the growing ego of ancient Babylon, and did so again later under Moses’ guidance, there remains a subconscious expectation from the nations of the world toward Israel that they once again unite in mutual love among each other, and by doing so, act as a positive unifying conduit that serves to spread unification to humanity at large. The more people feel united with threads of love dwelling in their connections, the happier, safer, more confident and healthier they feel. On the contrary, the more divided and hateful people are of each other, the more they feel crises filling their lives on varying degrees—personally, socially, economically and ecologically—and when suffering rises in humanity, hatred of the people of Israel also rises, since there is a subconscious dependence on this people, that humanity’s happiness or pain depends on Israel.
As such, Palestinians are one of several nations eyeing Israel negatively. In response to the growing hatred against Israel, the people of Israel need to reawaken their long-neglected unifying ability.
First, we need to relate to the deeper reason behind the world’s hatred toward Israel: that the multifaceted crisis humanity is experiencing can be solved via an upgrade to more unified human relations above people’s growing divisive drives. They subconsciously expect the people of Israel to unite above their own divisions, first and foremost, like they once did, in order to become a conduit for unity to spread worldwide, i.e., to become “a light unto the nations.”
We also need to acknowledge the problem that neither Jews nor non-Jews are aware of this deeper cause behind their pains since it is an ideological foundation that was lost around 3,800 years ago, and in an era marked by increasing division and hatred in our sensation, we have no clue how to unite positively.
Since we lack any feeling or experience of the kind of unity that our ancestors once attained, then we feel no lack for unity like we feel no lack for a sixth finger on our hand. We simply fail to see that if we unite, we will solve not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but our unity will have a positive rippling effect throughout humanity, solving myriad other problems that appear to have no solution.
The people of Israel have no ears for this message. Those who understand it, Kabbalists, are very small in number, and so there is no solution in sight on any mass scale.
The solution is solely that the people of Israel listens to what the nations of the world want from them: to implement the unity that the nations of the world are crying out for behind all the surface anti-Israeli and antisemitic sentiment, crimes and threats.
We will then all find ourselves in a life of goodness and peace.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are the Jews (and Israel) hated so disproportionately throughout human history?“
If we would not have been hated disproportionately throughout history, then we would not exist.
Hatred toward us has been our key unifying factor. We have no natural will to unite, but nature’s forces act in order to unite us, first among each other, and then through us to humanity.
We should not try to escape antisemitism, but rather understand it as a necessary force in nature, and penetrate into the core of the phenomenon in order to extract the knowledge of exactly why it exists and how to leverage it to humanity’s and nature’s benefit.
We should seek to deepen our knowledge and implementation of the wisdom of connection, to learn the core reasons for all events taking place today and in history, to show us how nature operates on all of us, and what we can do in order to unite, and by doing so, enter into balance with nature.
When we start enriching our connections through education that paves the path to unity above division, then we will start progressing to a positive form of unity that is in balance with nature. And when we unite in such a way, we will realize our role as “a light unto the nations.”
Therefore, the way to solve antisemitism once and for all is for us to unite according to the rule “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By doing so, humanity will start discovering a whole new harmonious and abundant reality.
In short, when people feel the positive effects of unity entering into their lives—happiness, confidence, safety, good health, relationships and the feeling that we lack nothing in our lives but to increase our love and care for others—then the hatred of Jews will not only disappear for good, but on the contrary, it will invert into a positive form of love, respect and appreciation toward a people that serve as a conduit for a newfound happiness entering their lives.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What happens on Shavuot?“
On Shavuot, we celebrate the giving of the Torah. It is the day when those called “Israel,” i.e., those who are directed “straight to God” (i.e. “Israel” comes from the words “Yashar Kel” [“straight to God”]), were given the Torah—the method of spiritual development through free will, as opposed to developing under an unconscious program of development by the upper force.
Through such a discovery, the people of Israel became capable of perceiving and sensing the full reality—the upper force of love and bestowal—and themselves within this reality. Instead of taking unconscious steps in the dark, and not knowing what they truly encounter or why, they decide to direct their own desire at the goal of revealing the complete picture of reality, and they themselves make that determination instead of the upper force doing it to them.
On Shavuot, we celebrate our ability to understand, feel and attain the upper force that works within us, and we acquire the ability to identify ourselves with its acts. This upper force, which is also called “the Creator,” “Nature,” and several other names in the wisdom of Kabbalah, operates whether or not we identify with it. However, by attaining how the upper force works on us through developing our own desire for it before the upper force itself awakens such an attitude in us, we express our love for the Creator. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is regarded as “freedom from the angel of death.” (The “angel of death” represents the human ego that makes us unconsciously direct ourselves at corporeal fulfillment at the expense of other people and nature.)
We can then express our own view of the purpose of creation and our path to it. While we cannot choose any other purpose or path to it, since they are predetermined, our freedom in such a process is our own participation in it, our own decision, choice and presence to partake in the process. Otherwise, we have no freedom. The upper force gave us a chance to participate freely in creation. It means that we assert ourselves and our independence, which happens to the extent that we identify ourselves with the upper force. This is the true meaning of becoming a human being (“Adam” [“human” in Hebrew], from the words “Domeh le Elyon” [“similar to the most high”]).
Based on the first part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on May 29, 2011, Shamati article 40, “The Giving of the Torah.”
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Did the Ten Commandments come from God?“
The true meaning of ten commandments eludes us in this world, and it is common to refer to them simply as God’s instructions for human morality. However, the ten commandments mean something else entirely.
The ten commandments are limitations that we apply to the use of our nature, the desire to enjoy, which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “Malchut.” In the language of Kabbalah, these limitations are a “Masach” (“screen”) and “Ohr Hozer” (“reflected light”) placed on Malchut, which in short means applying an intention to love, bestow and positively connect to each other and to our common source. When our desire to enjoy, Malchut, accepts these limitations, it becomes the place for the dressing of the ten Sefirot, and so it is called “the Ten Commandments.”
A commandment, which in Hebrew is “Dover,” stems from the Hebrew root of the word “utterance” (“Dibur”), which is born in the Peh (mouth) of the Partzuf (spiritual entity), known in Kabbalah as the “Peh de Rosh” (i.e., the place in our soul where we act on our decision to resemble the spiritual quality of love, bestowal and connection, and which receives the ability to love and bestow according to the strength of the intention to bestow). These actions are performed in the world of Atzilut, the highest of the spiritual worlds that is closest to the pure quality of love and bestowal, the Creator’s quality.
We receive the ten commandments only after connecting to each other “as one man with one heart” in order to rise above the raging egoistic desires that resist connection, and which make us hateful of one another. That massive egoistic quality is represented in the Bible story by Mount Sinai (“Sinai” from the Hebrew word for “hatred” [“Sinah”]). If we fail to positively connect to each other in order to rise above the ego that divides us, then we also cannot discover or observe any of the ten commandments. We have to be on a spiritual level of attainment, namely the level of “Bina,” one of the ten Sefirot which represents the pure quality of bestowal, in order to have the ear (Bina is the spiritual root of our sense of hearing) to hear the ten utterances from Mount Sinai. In other words, we need to attain a certain level of equivalence of form with the Creator in order to observe the ten commandments.
We can reach a spiritual level where we will discover and observe the ten commandments by first undergoing a preparation period in this world, where our main emphasis should be to achieve connection “as one man with one heart,” and only then will we observe the commandments. Otherwise we will lack the ability to understand them. In short, “love your neighbor as yourself” is the foundation of all spiritual attainment and ascent to a spiritual level.
Based on the first part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on June 3, 2014, Shamati 66 “The Giving of the Torah.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is Israel technically becoming an apartheid state?“
I’m not interested in all these labels people apply to Israel. My view of Israel is guided solely by authentic Kabbalistic sources that I have been studying for over forty years now.
Nonetheless, taking into account the vast amount of Arabs in Israeli society who share equal rights as Israeli citizens, whom you will find studying at universities and in a whole range of respected professions, such as lawyers and doctors, I would not consider Israel an apartheid state. Apartheid is something completely different.
Yet the various categories that people place Israel into do not matter to me. What does matter is the growing need for the people of Israel to realize their role in the world: to unite (“love your neighbor as yourself”) and be a conduit for unity to spread worldwide (“a light unto nations”).
If the people of Israel would observe this condition, then both the people of Israel and the world would experience a whole new kind of harmony, peace and happiness enter into their lives. If the people of Israel fail to make any motion toward more unification among themselves, then the attitude toward Israel will continue worsening.
Whether you define Israel as an “apartheid” or a “terrorist” state makes no difference because it will not change reality. What matters is our attitude to the law of nature that determines everything: to learn how it determines everything and how we are in relation to it.
I need to realize that as a Jew, I ignite the hatred that others have toward me. In other words, if I fail to work on connecting positively to others, starting from a positive connection to the people of Israel, then I stimulate the massive human ego—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others—which brings division and hatred to humanity. Accordingly, negative sentiment toward Israel and the Jewish people grows from one day to the next, leading to decisions that are based on this growing hatred. Therefore, what do I have to fight if I myself give rise to that hatred against me?
All I see in such negative stereotyping of Israel is that we fail to act as we need to. I attribute nothing to Israel’s critics and haters. If the people of Israel would operate according to what made them the people of Israel to begin with—a group that aims at its increasing unity according to “love your neighbor as yourself” in order to spread unity and love to the world—then the world would respond positively to Israel. By uniting and generating a positive force among themselves, people worldwide would feel a much more harmonious, balanced, happy and confident sensation surface within them, myriad problems and crises would thus subside, and the attitude toward Israel would also invert from an increasingly negative one—as it currently is—to one that respects and loves the people who bring unification and goodness to the world. The nations of the world are like a shadow of the actions of the people of Israel.
“The Israeli nation was to be a ‘transition.’ This means that to the extent that Israel cleanse themselves … so they pass their power on to the rest of the nations.” – Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “The Love of the Creator and the Love of the Created Beings.”
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What can be the solution/s to the Israel-Palestine conflict?“
The current Israel-Palestine crisis is another chapter in an age-old conflict dating back to our early efforts to reestablish a Jewish State.
In short, we hold the key to put an end to this crisis. Our unity or division makes the difference between our enemies subsiding or rising up against us. Also, the extent to which we are united or divided mirrors the extent to which our enemies calm down or flare up.*
Why is our unity the definitive factor in this conflict?
It is because unity, and specifically unity above division, marks our uniqueness and what made us a Jewish people to begin with some 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. When Babylon experienced a crisis of social division, with conflicts and hatred tearing apart the ancient Babylonian society, Abraham—a Babylonian priest who discovered the path to unite above the growing divisions, i.e., reaching the revelation of the single force of love and bestowal that exists in reality above the growing ego—began openly teaching this path he discovered to anyone wanting to learn.
Since division throughout society was felt as a major problem, several people gathered around Abraham and implemented the method he taught. They went on to discover the unique unifying force of love above their divisive drives, and by doing so, became known as “the people of Israel.” The word “Israel” comes from “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God,” i.e., straight to the single force of love that fills reality. Later, this group became known as “the Jews” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).
Therefore, the Jewish nation was founded on this ideological basis. People living in ancient Babylon, who felt the pressure of the divisiveness and hatred of the time, gathered under Abraham’s guidance, and they eventually united above their divisive drives. By doing so, they became known as “a light unto the nations.” That is, their attainment of nature’s unifying force above the human ego, which causes all the divisiveness and problems in society, positively affects all of “the nations,” i.e., all people in the world. A critical mass of people uniting in love above their differences and divisions spreads love, unity, mutual care, support and encouragement throughout humanity at large. And when people feel this force of unity connecting them, they feel happier, full of confidence, strength and warmth, and then they revere the source that brings them such sensations.
As it was then, so it is today, but on a much greater global scale.
The human ego, divisiveness, conflicts and hatred are all on the rise, and they lead to crises across the board. For instance, the escalation in Israel and Palestine comes during a period of mass shootings in the United States becoming almost as commonplace as eating breakfast, and more generally, despite our increasing technological and economic connections worldwide, we feel more isolated, stressed, depressed, empty and anxious than ever before. The more people feel all kinds of negative feelings and phenomena in their lives, the more feelings of discontent toward the people of Israel surface.
If we Jews function according to the original unifying inclination that brought us together, we will then spread a positive unifying force to the world, and thus experience a positive reaction from the world. If, however, as is currently the case, we fail to make moves toward our unity, then we obstruct the positive unifying force from reaching humanity, and hatred naturally stirs up against us in order to prod us to unite. It is thus my hope that we will wake up to our fateful need to unite sooner rather than later, as doing so would spare ourselves and humanity much pain and sorrow.
We simply have no clue as to what a unifying calibration of our attitudes to each other would result in. The current Israel-Palestine crisis will calm down, and moreover, crises spanning personal, social, economic and ecological levels all throughout humanity would also subside. The rampant exploitation, manipulation, hatred and abuse in humanity would invert into its positive forms of mutual support, consideration, encouragement, love and care.
That is why I put in so many efforts to spread the message about the need for Jewish unity, because its implementation or neglect will determine whether humanity shifts to a harmonious and unifying course of development, or whether we will continue declining down the current divisive path.
* See my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, for more details on this topic.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Question: If there are problems in relations between people, does Kabbalah help solve these problems?
Answer: Partly. I cannot say that in everything at once. I cannot say that a person begins to study and it immediately becomes clear to him where he is and how he should act. This is not the case. But a person begins to understand how he should act in order not to make mistakes.
Although these actions may not be entirely convenient for him—actions of bestowal, actions of benevolence, love, and so on—they show him in which direction he must act in order to be in the correct relationship with the universe, with nature, with all the forces that affect us. Put yourself in a state where all forces will act on him for the good.
[281946]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/4/21
Related Material:
Knowledge Of Kabbalah Is Indispensable
The Sinking Of Science: The Past Pride Of Humanity
We Will Not Be Able To Hide In An Eco-Bunker
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
