Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you be anti-Semitic if you don’t know what Jews are?“

Yes. I can be an anti-Semite even if I don’t know what a Jew is, because I feel, without any intellectual grasp of what I feel, but I simply feel that my happiness, the world’s peace and my advancement in life depend on the Jews. I feel that this small nation of 15 or so million people runs and manipulates the world, squeezing out its juices and energies, preventing human society from enjoying a good life. That is a subconscious sensation of every person in the world. Also, if one doesn’t feel that way, then it can awaken very quickly, since it lies latent within every person.

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Question: Why don’t we have love?

Answer: We have love, but it is only for ourselves. Therefore, we don’t have any other love because only one of the two can exist. As it is said, there is no empty place in the heart, either it is filled with myself or it is filled with the Creator.

Question: Is the activation of the first Tzimtzum (restriction) already an act of free choice?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How is it possible in a group to achieve a sensation of the spiritual inanimate level in which you feel that the Creator completely manages everything?

Answer: You must always think about it, trying to feel it physically in yourself, and helping each other in this. It requires strong dedication and introspection.

Question: Why can’t we acquire Rabash’s unbridled courage in dissemination?

Answer: Rabash had a desperate courage. He taught young men who, in their situations, were the complete opposite of Rabash’s environment in Bnei Brak. It is difficult to imagine what he was compelled to hear and feel.

Question: If the friends in a ten cannot participate in daily meetings, is it preferable to participate in such meetings with friends from other tens of the world group or should I concentrate on work in my ten?

Answer: It is possible to integrate with other tens also if you are unable to be with your friends.

Question: In the past, you said that it was more difficult for you than it is for us, your students, to advance. Will it be easier for students in another five to ten years to progress than it is for us?

Answer: Certainly, it will be easier for the next generations to advance than for us. This doesn’t mean that it will be more pleasant for them, but it will be easier because there will be a greater recognition of evil.

Question: How can I change from thoughts about myself to thoughts about the friends?

Answer: I have to constantly think about it, trying to do it all the time, working through my efforts.

Question: Is there such a concept as a “spiritual conscience”? Otherwise, where is the clarification of “truth and falsehood” implemented?

Answer: You can call it a conscience, even though I don’t like materialistic definitions that much. Clarification is carried out on yourself when you try to connect with the friends in a neutral situation outside of yourself and outside of them. You search for a state like this together,  and within it you implement the clarification.

Question: We learn that prayer is given from above. If we try to pray artificially and mechanically, is it possible to call such an activity “prayer” or is this preparation for prayer?

Answer: This is a true prayer. However, it would be preferable for us to organize it in a group among ourselves. What they give from above is what they are simply teaching us. Suddenly, I yearn to ask the Creator. What this means is that He has given me such a desire Himself.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 04/09/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is there so much anti-Semitism on the Internet such as in YouTube comment sections and social media?“

I don’t think that there is a particularly unique role of the Internet in relation to the rise of anti-Semitism. It is simply a platform for people to express whatever they feel, and they can write as much as they want there. However, anti-Semitic comments on this electronic medium are merely an expression of anti-Semitic sentiment that has been around for generations, regardless of the Internet.

Anti-Semitism is a natural phenomenon depending solely on the Jews. The world is under nature’s governance, and Jews hold the potential to be above nature in their ability to bring themselves and the whole of humanity closer to the revelation of the upper force.

What does it mean that the Jews have the ability to be “above nature”? It means that the Jews became known as “Jews” through the spiritual unity (“love your friend as yourself”) they discovered under Abraham’s guidance in ancient Babylon (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]). Such unity is considered as above nature, because

• Human nature is a desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone.
• Unity with and love for others is foreign to human nature, and thus
• Achieving unity among people requires a special revelation—of the upper force, a connecting force of
  love and bestowal—in order to rise above our nature to the second, spiritual nature.

The Jews lost contact with this spiritual nature about 2,000 years ago when they went into exile and dispersed around the world. However, the fact that the Jews once attained spiritual unity remains latent within them, and as the need for such unity starts becoming sensed on a global scale—with a lot of problems revealing worldwide that have no comprehensive solution but in rising to a higher, spiritual level—then there is an increasing demand on the Jewish people by the nations of the world, who subconsciously expect a solution to their problems from the Jews. Thus, anti-Semitism rises in order to pressure Jews around the world to wake up to their role.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why have Jews been persecuted throughout history?“

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Q&A, Quora - 1 Comment →

Question: Can a thought of one person change the entire world?

Answer: Unfortunately, no, because then that person would change our whole world. This cannot happen. All of us together must connect our desires, then we will have the right thoughts that will change the world. The main thing is the desire.

Question: Does intention drive desire and thought?

Answer: Yes. It manages both desires and thoughts. But the intention appears only after the appearance of the desire itself. When the desire is processed through thought, an intention appears, and thanks to it, the action takes place.

Question: Is there a connection between thoughts and the reforming light?

Answer: Certainly. The reforming light influences you and awakens particular thoughts in you. But everything depends on how you react to them.

Question: What do I gain if I attribute all of my thoughts and desires to the Creator? What should the right response to these thoughts and desires be?

Answer: You will gain a connection with the true source of all your thoughts and desires. First you connect yourself correctly to the source and then everything depends on what you want from it, how, what you are giving back, what you are asking, and what kind of desire you are raising.

Question: How does the thought that “there is none else besides Him” translate into sensation?

Answer: Only through your efforts, your aspirations constantly to try to feel that “there is none else besides Him,” that the Creator manages you completely, and that your connection with Him is absolute and complete, passing through all the cells of your body.

Question: How can we make sure we are giving the Creator pleasure?

Answer: It is very simple. If I give pleasure to the friends, it means that I am giving pleasure to the Creator.

Question: What if we were to see how our thoughts work immediately?

Answer: No, that will never happen. I must only think about the fact that I am working in the right group where everyone will merge together into one single mass and how this mass will become homogeneous, merged without any identification, where our desires and intentions are subject to one thing: to attain the Creator, the one and only power.

Remark: At first, my mind gladly perceives the Creator as an ideal of all the good, without any flaws. But then immediately there is the contact with the ugly realities of this life.

My Comment: Correct. However, I must be ready to perceive these ugly realities of life as being directed at me in order to correct them. They are nothing more than that.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/3/19

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Question: I have heard that the word “Ubar” (Embryo) and the word “Zam” (Rage) are connected. Can you explain the connection between them?

Answer: The strongest form of expression of egoism is a person’s rage, when he disagrees with the thought of creation and wants to command the world. If he overcomes his rage, closes his mouth and eyes, and restricts all of his egoistic feelings, he becomes an embryo.

Question: Everything happens internally, emotionally with me. Even if someone insults me, either indirectly or consciously, without my knowing about how he feels this, I feel sorrow and always turn to the upper light for help. Are these egoistic feelings?

Answer: It doesn’t matter if it is egoistic. The main thing is that it is affecting you and in this way you expand your spiritual Kli. In order to transcend your ego, it is up to you to experience many examinations within yourself for many years.

Question: Is it necessary for us to discover “fear” in order to begin to attain the right acceptance of creation?

Answer: Yes, but it depends what you are afraid of. The right fear is one where I will not be sufficiently connected with the friends so that through our union the Creator will be discovered and we will give Him satisfaction.

Question: Should I direct my feelings more toward working in a group than to study? Meaning that if you immerse yourself in studying and begin to enjoy it, it will simply sweep you away?

Answer: No. Feelings must develop only in relationships between friends. Everything else is a Klipa (Shell).

Question: What is the right reason for working in a state of nullification in which you only want to care about the spirituality of the friends?

Answer: If your work is directed toward the Creator and you hope to discover Him in the center of the group, your connection to Him and the connection from Him to you is the right direction.

Question: The world is more or less relaxed at the moment and we have the possibility of being involved with spiritual work in a ten, in dissemination, and in study. What if suddenly something happens, a war or big problems in the world, will we still have the possibility of working in a ten, being involved with dissemination and study or will there be problems with this?

Answer: All of this depends personally on you, in your group, in each one of us in a concrete way and in all of us together. It is only this and nothing more.

Question: Regarding the study of the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” according to what you say, it is necessary to dissolve into a ten, become connected with it, and that is of utmost importance, and we will not understand anything in our mind. But suppose I connect with a ten and dissolve into it and still don’t understand the study material?

Answer: First dissolve into a ten and then it will become clear to you what you must do next. Don’t jump. It is not necessary to say anything at first, just do it. Only this must be in front of you.

Question: What is the importance of the Sabbath and the rest of the customs that are described in the Torah in relation to the ten?

Answer: These holidays have no meaning, these are just spiritual levels. Over time, we will begin to use them and maintain them, but not according to a physical calendar, rather when we achieve these levels.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 4/4/19

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Question: Since all that surrounds us is the emanation of the Creator, is love for the still, vegetative, and animate levels a transition toward love for the Creator? For example, suppose someone loves animals, flowers, etc.

Answer: No. A relationship like that exists in every person due to his animalistic essence. What we discover in this world is called our animalistic essence. It has nothing to do with the Creator.

Question: If there is none else besides Him, who am “I” who observes the picture of the surrounding world?

Answer: You are the point that has been given the possibility to feel itself supposedly outside of the Creator. That is your “I.”

Question: How do blind people feel the Creator? Do they have the ability to perceive the Creator?

Answer: How do we feel Him? Who among us sees Him? Nobody does. The Creator is felt as a force that influences you.

Question: According to the degree of my nearing the Creator, can I determine what the Creator is and how He manages me and the world within me more and more precisely?

Answer: Yes. As we study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we approach Him, and as a result, we truly reveal Him. But we discover Him within us.

Question: When something incomprehensible happens and I remember that the Creator did this to me, does this state cease or does my perception of the “incomprehensible” change?

Answer: The perception changes. The incomprehensible becomes comprehensible.

Question: Does the Creator have any reckoning regarding our animal bodies?

Answer: There is no reckoning with our physical bodies; you might put on weight or do anything you want to do with your body.

Question: Am I the point through which God gets to know the physical world?

Answer: God does not need to know anything. He is this world.

Question: Are the attainment of the sensation of the greatness of the Creator and of His oneness the same thing?

Answer: Yes. There is no division in the many aspects of attainment. There is only one: the attainment of the Creator.

Question: Why does suffering stimulate the desire’s development?

Answer: Suffering pushes a person toward movement because he wants to get rid of it. Without suffering (the so-called deficiency), there is no movement forward.

Question: Why is it that the Creator is felt in the wild, primitive nature, and only vanity is felt in a metropolis?

Answer: It is because in primitive nature you are free from the influence of the insane crowd.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/27/19

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Question: Must we bring the system into balance or must we change in relation to a system that is completely unchangeable and balanced?

Answer: We must change, only us. In this way we change the world that is reflected within us.

Question: What appears first, thought or desire?

Answer: Desire. Desire is our foundation. Thoughts then appear, which begin to sort and take in and absorb the desires and work with them.

Question: What appeared first, distance, time, or movement?

Answer: All of this is the result of our egoistic development. Until the spiritual essence fell into the egoistic level, there was no time, motion, or space.

Question: Does spiritual happiness always come as the result of a struggle between two opposing forces?

Answer: It is not only the struggle, but also the right combination between two opposing forces.

Question: The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method for uniting people. How is it possible to help your family unite in order to survive? How do we add Kabbalistic principles to the family?

Answer: You need to try to do this gradually and never apply pressure. Don’t be troublesome, don’t frighten people. You must show them that you are happy because you are studying Kabbalah. This will be the best method for making it popular with your relatives.

Question: How does a Kabbalist differentiate evil from good?

Answer: Everything that brings us closer to each other and to the Creator is good. Everything else, even what is neutral, is evil

Question: Why do people try to extend their life on Earth? After all, we were not born for that, but only in order to develop the soul.

Answer: I don’t think it is necessary to artificially prolong life. There is nothing worse than this world. Yet we don’t have the right to give it up because we need to carry out our role.

Question: When a person becomes a Kabbalist, by seeing what is inevitable, is he able to correct his behavior in the present?

Answer: Certainly. If you see your spiritual state, then you can certainly correct your next movement based on your state.

Question: What are the levels of control of the heart and the spiritual state that exist for a Kabbalist?

Answer: Tzimtzum (restriction), then the Masach (screen), ascent above the ego, and after that Zivug de Haka’a  (mating by striking), meaning the proper functioning of your egoism with bestowal and love.

Question: Does a hierarchy exist in a spiritual system?

Answer: Certainly it exists. There are 125 levels that are divided into sublevels. Kabbalists feel that someone is higher or lower according to the hierarchy. But other than that, each one has his own mission.

Question: How is it possible to hasten and carry out a maximal change in states from bad to good and from good to the middle line?

Answer: This is only through work with friends in a group to the degree they approach each other.

Question: Does spiritual consciousness depend on the physical level of human consciousness?

Answer: Spiritual consciousness does not depend on physical consciousness in any way. A person in our world can be stupid or lazy, while in spirituality he could discover completely different characteristics.

Question: How and what is changed in a physical person after going through the Machsom (barrier)?

Answer: He becomes purposeful. That is all.

Question: Whether we remain in this world or abandon it depends upon what?

Answer: It depends upon the mission.

Question: Do all people have a point in the heart?

Answer: All people have a point in the heart, if only they want to renew or revive it.

Question: Can a Kabbalist influence his spiritual root and therefore determine the flow of events in the lowest world, for all the worlds?

Answer: Yes, certainly he can.
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/20/19

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Question: We know that there was a shattering and then the descent of the souls. Does this process repeat itself?

Answer: The descent is only to our world. Before our world. There is no parallel to this process in our world.

Question: Why are Hebrew words written from right to left?

Answer: This is how the upper light spreads: from above to below and from right to left. This is, of course, unusual for us, although in other languages we encounter random writing like this: from top to bottom, from right to left, or writing in a circle.

Question: There are many words in Hebrew that are similar to words in languages like English, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish. Does the origin of the written language of the nations of the world derive from the Hebrew letters?

Answer: That could be. Of course, many other words originated from words in Hebrew because there was a time that the Jews became scattered all over the world. Somehow, these words slipped into Yiddish, Ladino, and other popular international languages. In addition, when creating the international language Esperanto, several words were borrowed from the Hebrew language.

Question: In what language do you think: Hebrew or Russian?

Answer: If I write on Twitter in Russian, then at that moment I think in Russian. But if I try to express what I feel in words, then since all of my knowledge is derived from Hebrew texts, I think in Hebrew. But if I go to a Russian-speaking audience, then I think in this language. Russian remains my native language.

Question: If most of humanity were to communicate in Hebrew and it were to become an international language, let’s say, instead of English, would the world become better?

Answer: No. The most important thing is human yearning! It is possible to successfully deceive people in Hebrew and nothing would happen. The formal use of a language does not indicate anything.

Question: In which language did Adam write the book Raziel HaMalach?

Answer: He wrote it in Hebrew.

Question: We learn cursive letters separately from block letters and some of them are very different. Which letters were the Kabbalistic sources written with?

Answer: The primary sources were clearly written in block letters. I do not know when the cursive letters appeared and what happened with them. In principle, wherever they talk about the meaning of the letters, what they mean is their block form.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/6/19

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Question: If a person is in the intention for one’s own sake, should he try to change his intention to an intention for the sake of bestowal in order to gain the quality of bestowal through his own abilities, or must he attract the light with only his egoistic motivation, without trying to change himself, but wanting the light to change him; is that enough to acquire the characteristic of bestowal?

Answer: A person cannot determine with certainty his interconnection with the upper light. Therefore it is said: “You must do everything in your power to do to change yourself to resemble the Creator.”

Question: Can a person acquire the characteristic of bestowal with only an egoistic aspiration?

Answer: Exactly!
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