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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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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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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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How does human nature work?“

Human nature is the desire to receive, also called “desire to enjoy,” and it functions by receiving what is beneficial to itself and rejecting what is harmful. Everything in our lives is built upon this calculation where we first try to distance ourselves from harm, and then seek how to draw ourselves closer to what is beneficial.

Human nature also includes a multilayering of systems that work simultaneously on still, vegetative, animate and human levels. One of those systems is our bodily one, which operates involuntarily. If our bodies are healthy, then they know what is good for them and draw that goodness to themselves. After the bodily system, there is the emotional system, which also functions relatively according to instinct. From the emotional system, we move to the mind, and from the mind to the intellect, and so on. That is, we have systems over systems that concurrently work on receiving what is beneficial and rejecting what is harmful.

Such is human nature and the essence of our lives. Our every desire, thought and action operates according to the calculation, “How can we receive what is most beneficial to us and reject what is harmful?”

Based on the video “How Human Nature Works” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Nitzah Mazoz. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do we build an image of other people inside us?“

We are emotional cameras because we picture other people in our emotions, which are in our desire to receive.

The desire to receive pleasure is our nature and it makes us perceive everyone and everything via how we can enjoy from them.

For instance, if we look at another person’s face, we might register only their eyes and their smile, because we might enjoy those facial features the most. We do not acquire an exact physical photograph of the other person, like how police piece together facial composites, but we build an emotional impression based primarily on what we enjoy from the other person and their features.

Other than people, we also perceive animals, plants and objects similarly—in the desire to receive pleasure, which is ultimately what we are and where we perceive our reality.

Based on the video “How You Create an Image of Other People Within” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Tal Mandelbaum and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Do people see others as a mirror of themselves?“

Undoubtedly, we see people not for who they are. Also, it is not just people, but anything we see, we seemingly bring it to life according to what we want to see in it. People in and of themselves do not exist, but we see people according to what we want to see in them.

What does it mean that we want to see something in someone?

So many people in our lives simply pass us by, as if they do not stand out from the background. However, to the extent in which we get to know certain people, then we gain some kind of impression of them.

We then relate to them in a certain way. Then, even before we start communicating with them, we already picture their image in us based on our previous impressions that we accumulated. We register various impressions from people the more we encounter them. Therefore, we do not know any people for who they are. We only know these images that we sculpt within us.

Based on the video “You Don’t See People for Who They Are” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Tal Mandelbaum and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How should I relate to people?“

We have to relate to everyone favorably, i.e. to give a good example to everyone as much as we can in order to break them with love, out of our love for them.

What does “breaking other people with love” mean?

We first need to understand that what we perceive of other people are not them in and of themselves, but an impression that exists within us. We then need to want to invert our negative impression of others to a positive one, so that they will understand how much we really wish for their benefit.

We continue relating to them through such a tendency up to a point where, as it is written, “love will cover all crimes.” That is, over the initial negative impressions—the “crimes”—love will emerge: that we will perceive no flaws in people the way we perceived various flaws in them through our egoistic picture that we previously held.

Also, what does it mean that our initial impression of other people is always negative? It is that we view others through an egoistic filter, where we constantly calculate along the lines of “What can I get out of them?” and “How can I reap some kind of benefit from them?” If we cannot find any self-benefit from other people, then we find no point in relating to them.

Based on the video “What Is the Best Way to Relate to Other People?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Tal Mandelbaum and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you tell me more and more about the Hebrew language?“

A little while after I had started studying with my Kabbalah teacher, Kabbalist Baruch Ashlag (Rabash), a letter reached us from a prisoner who lived under terrible conditions in a prison camp in Siberia.

The letter was written in Hebrew, full of very complicated rhymes that I did not understand, and it was by a person who had no prior learning of Hebrew, nor was he connected to Israel or the Jewish people.

Rabash told me that probably what had happened was that, out of suffering, the prisoner came to feel Hebrew and the internality of the language.

How could it be, that out of great suffering, a person with no seeming connection to Israel or the Jewish people, starts writing in Hebrew?

The Kabbalistic explanation is that his suffering led him to a certain kind of connection with the source of his suffering, which is in the depths of creation, and there he found expression in Hebrew.

Kabbalists, i.e. people who hold a connection to the deeper layers of creation, see that it is indeed possible for a person to discover the Hebrew language in such a way as shown by the prisoner. That is, Hebrew is the base language that exists in the center of the world. It is at the root of all writing, talking and expression, and it lets us express our innermost feelings.

If we reach the depths of creation, then we discover life’s causal point—the common root to us all—and in that root, we have a single language and one force—of love, bestowal and connection—that created us, and which guides us gradually toward its revelation.

Based on the video “The Siberian Prisoner Who Discovered Hebrew Out of Suffering” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Tanner Mardis on Unsplash.

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