Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who won the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, and why?“

Israel might have won the battle militarily, but it is losing the war for the world’s support.

With each conflict between the two, public opinion grows stronger against Israel, making it lose face more and more on the world stage. Israel also might win future military battles, but the world has tilted in favor of the Palestinians. If Israel continues focusing primarily on its military defense while making no key changes on an ideological level, then it can expect increasing delegitimization to reach levels where the world will wish for its elimination.

How, then, can Israel win the world’s support?

Israel can win the world’s support if its people understand that their strength is in their unity, and only in their unity. When united, the people of Israel realize their roots, the foundation that made them the people of Israel to begin with. The unity of the people of Israel draws a special unifying force and example to humanity, which in turn makes humanity feel that there is a reason and benefit for Israel’s existence. However, when divided, as the country currently looks, for instance, as it cannot even form a government over multiple elections while having 120 members of parliament scattered across dozens of parties, then the division and hatred projecting from this small country causes the world to frown upon it. More and more people then latch onto an anti-Israel stance in order to justify the deeper hatred they feel toward us.

Thus, in addition to boosting Israel’s military defense systems, Israel needs to remind and educate its people that its strength is only in its unity. While, on the surface, it appears as if more and more people hate Israel because they view Israel as oppressing and abusing human rights against Palestinians, at a deeper level, the core reason for the hatred of Israel is due to today’s people of Israel failing to live up to what made them the people of Israel to begin with: they give into their divisive drives, desires and thoughts instead of uniting above them. The hatred among the people of Israel today projects subconsciously onto humanity as a whole, and as humanity feels increasing suffering and perceived injustices due to increasing division, then more and more people hate the people of Israel, and the hatred becomes expressed increasingly as hatred for the State of Israel.

The growing hatred against us is an indicator that we need to return to our roots and reason for our being here. Our nation was founded on principles of love, unity and mutual responsibility. We became a nation when we applied the law of “Love your neighbor as yourself” to our relationships above our divisive drives. Therefore, by not exercising unity above our divisions, we fail to live up to what made us the people of Israel to begin with, and as a result, people around the world increasingly feel no justification for this people holding a land of their own.

In order to validate our claim to the Land of Israel, we need to revive our unity. By doing so, we will become a positive conduit for the unifying force to spread throughout humanity, i.e., as it is written, we will become “a light unto the nations.” While divided and hateful of each other, people around the world feel that we project division and hatred to the world. They feel us as the source of all evil, of every problem in their lives. If we thus rise above our divisiveness and unite, the world will support us, including the Palestinians. If we, however, let our divisive drives run us, then the world will eventually expel us from this land.

About the people of Israel being founded on following the law of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes the following in his article, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).”

All of Israel are responsible for one another (Sanhedrin, 27b, Shavuot 39). This is to speak of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), when all of Israel became responsible for one another. Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself.” This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs. And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What comes first, thought or desire?“

Desire comes first, and thought is an upshot of the desire.

However, thought influences desire and vice versa. For instance, we might have a very small desire for something, but if we think about it more and more, develop and nurture those thoughts, then as a result, our desire grows.

Also, desire can influence our thoughts, and if the desire changes, then a certain thought can disappear.

Desire, however, is primary and thought is secondary. We were given thought in order to increase our desire, and with thought, we can focus on the desire, format it, and fulfill it.

Based on the “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 2, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does true love really look like?“

In the lives we currently know, true love is nonexistent. If we start rising to our next degree of development, above our current life, where we all come from, then we start discovering true love.

Today, there is a need to re-educate ourselves about love, even though life itself is doing most of the work for us. We need to realize that the instances of what we call love are but tiny sparks within an omnipresent higher love that gradually draws us to its discovery. And the discovery of this higher love is synonymous with discovering the meaning of life. It is a completely different feeling—an attraction, connection and fulfillment that is whole, perfect and eternal.

The ideas about love that propagate through novels, TV shows and films only confuse us. From a biological standpoint, we should by all means find suitable mates, raise families and our next generation. But more importantly, if we direct our aspirations spiritually, toward love for all humanity, then everything will fall into place.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can people really possess supernatural powers?“

Throughout history, several people have made claim to supernatural powers. These people divide into two groups: One tries to do something with these supernatural powers, and usually it doesn’t go so well for them and even boomerangs negatively back to them. The other group knows that they have such supernatural powers and they do not use them because it is no good to use such powers despite possessing them. Nature gives certain people powers in order to progress humanity.

What can we do with supernatural powers?

“Supernatural” means that we see no relationship between cause and effect. The actual connection exists, only we don’t see it… at least, for the time being.

Can any person acquire supernatural powers or is it a gift from above only for some people? There are certain people who are closer to supernatural powers and those that are further away. It’s a matter of fate.

What if someone walks in and asks: “Dr. Laitman, I want to develop supernatural powers, what do I have to do?” My answer is that you need to acquire sublime qualities. Your nature is egoistic, so you need to acquire qualities that are above the ego—qualities of love, giving, concern for others, and positive connection with others.

What is so powerful about the force of love and giving?

Simply put, when we attain it, we receive an interconnected and interdependent sensation of reality. Then we start identifying with the wholeness and perfection of the reality surrounding us. Instead of wanting to change reality to benefit ourselves, we think in an opposite way: how to change ourselves to adapt to the wholeness and perfection of reality.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are the solutions for eliminating the constant feeling of loneliness?“

Loneliness is a major problem in today’s world. Several countries have appointed ministers to handle it. There are several reasons for it, including the fact that it is mostly the lonely who commit suicide.

However, no ministers or government decisions will help this problem. More and more people are finding meaninglessness in marriage, work, friendship and life in general, that there is no stimulus for moving, thinking, talking or doing anything at all. There is a certain stillness setting in the world more and more today.

The reason for growing feelings of loneliness and meaninglessness in today’s world is so that they will prod us to seek the meaning of life. However, rising above loneliness and meaninglessness with a quest to discover life’s meaning is only possible if we succeed in awakening people to it. Otherwise, we can expect more and more people taking pills that will put them to sleep throughout their entire lives until they die.

Logically, if we feel bad, then we would start seeking remedies for our negative feelings. But what can we do if we see no solutions? What do we live for? In the end, the only solution left will be to discover the meaning of life, since knowingly or unknowingly, it is ultimately what we all want.

Eventually, loneliness will break through into a new phase of complete apathy toward everything, and it will be part of a natural process that leads us to the discovery of a whole new life. In some ways, it is a kind of death. By crossing this barrier, we discover that there is another much better life, and start living it.

A person must suffer a kind of death—to realize, agree with, and want to give up the constant egoistic pursuit that ultimately bears no fruits—in order to start truly living. Once we agree with this transition, we then become ready for the next life.

My advice to the lonely, all who feel alienated from the world, is to go to and read the material that was made for answering the question about the meaning of life (follow the links in my Quora bio). There is nothing else that I could recommend. From the bottom of my heart, there is nothing else I see that I could offer.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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