Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is dancing a spiritual thing?“

Dancing is very natural. It is the body’s language. Where there are no words left to express ourselves, we dance.

Dancing and singing stem from our desire to connect to the upper force, to our destiny, and to hope.

The individualized form of dancing that has developed over the generations is an outcome of our egoistic development, where the more egoistic we become, the more our human activities, including dancing, become individualized.

Dancing in groups and in circles gives us a feeling of connection to others, where by dancing together, we become stronger, and fuel ourselves with more intention and desire. Dancing together also gives us much greater strength than dancing as individuals because a spiritual force dwells in our togetherness, which helps us overcome our egos. Thus, in such a setup, negative egoistic forces become positive forces that increase our connection.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, dancing is the expression of connection and love that has to ride upon division and hatred, like two poles. It is our work to connect these opposites, and dance emerges as a balance of opposite motions, such as drawing closer together and then retreating, and jumping up and down. It points to our nature as individual and separate beings created as such by nature, how we overcome and rise above that state, and our desire to become as one.

Dancing with God is called “the dance of the bride and the groom.” God, or the upper force, is the groom and we are the bride who brings ourselves into connection with God. We are then willing to do whatever God wants of us, devotedly, and that becomes our dance.

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

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is spirituality?“

Spirituality is when I want others and nature to enjoy from everything I do, and that the enjoyment that goes to others and nature will not belong to me in any way.

Opposite spirituality is corporeality, which is when I want to enjoy for self-benefit alone.

Based on the afternoon Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on March 13, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think about challenges on YouTube?“

Challenges on YouTube and on social media platforms in general represent our primal animal nature and how we learn from others. It is natural for us to imitate others since we are social animals.

In the end, imitating one another brings us closer together. In some ways, we start to better understand each other.

Whether such challenges are good or bad depends on what we imitate.

For instance, if there are challenges that get people involved in doing good deeds to each other, and which increase positive social connection and helping others, then they are good for society and I’m all for them.

Based on the TV show, “Kabbalah Express,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Israel Samsonnikov on February 16, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Was Pharaoh of Passover really a bad guy or just a victim of his royal birth? He was no Haman.“

Pharaoh is a very powerful force. The wisdom of Kabbalah does not discuss Pharaoh as a personality, because in practice it is a nonexistent persona. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Pharaoh is the very big ego that the Creator created. It is a great desire to devour everything in the world for self-benefit.

The more humanity develops, the more this force of Pharaoh, the egoistic force, surfaces. One of its expressions is that we aspire to all kinds of accomplishments in our world, and the more we achieve, the emptier we feel. Likewise, the world appears to worsen the more we develop.

We become more and more dissatisfied with life. The more we connect technologically and economically, the more internally detached we feel from each other. Today, we witness such instances as people no longer feeling secure in the most distant villages. Our tightening global interdependence has led us to such paradoxes where farmers cannot even feed themselves from their own land.

Pharaoh represents the egoistic intention behind everything we do. On one hand, we make tremendous progress technologically, and we find ourselves in a situation where we are more dependent on others all around the world. On the other hand, we find ourselves feeling more and more detached from each other, and that we cannot tolerate being so tightly connected to others.

The ego, however, leads us to the need to correctly connect to each other, where we yearn for, build and ask for connection. What this means is that Pharaoh, by transforming our world so that it becomes increasingly interdependent and interconnected, brings us to a state where we hate the feeling of division, and we then transform our world into another one with positive connections. In other words, by abiding to our ego’s demands while connecting more and more, we find that we will simply be unable to achieve long-lasting happiness, success, or even survive. Pharaoh, however, constantly spurs our divisiveness. On one hand, Pharaoh awakens in us a desire for unity and acts so that we cannot live without making the right connections between us, since otherwise we cannot provide ourselves with essentials. On the other hand, Pharaoh will not let us unite. This contrast sums up Pharaoh’s merit.

We then start understanding that we have no other way out besides rising above and escaping from Pharaoh—the egoistic desire for self-benefit. Our escape from Pharaoh, from using others egoistically for the sake of self-benefit, is called the “exodus from Egypt.”

It is quite complicated because we still need to discover these concepts within ourselves. We live in a unique era. Today, we increasingly discover what has been prepared for us in the form of Pharaoh, i.e., in an egoistic form. We see a globally interdependent and interconnected world closing in on us more and more, and at the same time, we find ourselves feeling more internally remote from others. We thus need to respect Pharaoh, this overblown ego we find ourselves in today, because it leads us to realize how bad it makes our lives, and through such a revelation, we gain a desire to exit our ego and enter into a much more meaningful and joyous world where we are positively connected.

Based on “News with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman” from April 12, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will WW3 start because the tensions of Israel and Iran?“

Iran often discusses its aims to destroy Israel, while at the same time, it is paying a heavy price for its aspiration to build nuclear weapons. In fact, Israel does not disturb Iran, but helps Iran stand out. Iranians seem willing to sacrifice themselves in order to be seen as important and intimidating in this setup.

Regarding nuclear weapons, it is no more than a game. Leaders with nuclear weapons have no desire to use them. Historically, those who had nuclear weapons became more restrained, because the use of nuclear weapons draws the same threat onto themselves.

The Iranians are seemingly ready to die in order to gain respect, but what is it worth? When we die, we have no feeling or memory of any respect we received here. Therefore, the game is important for keeping them in the spotlight.

Israel should do nothing but hold a correct intention toward the situation, using it to come closer to the upper force, realizing the laws of nature among the relations of the people of Israel, with the most important one being, “Love your friend as yourself.”

On the physical level, Israel is correctly countering the looming threat from Iran for the time being. The problem is that Israelis are divided, which distances them from the upper force. At the end of the day, only the upper force can provide true protection.

This has nothing to do with religion. We have to understand that “Love your friend as yourself” is a law, a commandment, and it determines human relations. Moreover, implementing this law is the positive example that the people of Israel have to show the world.

If the people of Israel fulfill the commandment of “Love your friend as yourself,” then even the Iranians will start to love Israel, and this will become their source of respect: to connect to Israel, the nation that brings the method of correction to the world, i.e., the way to reach “Love your friend as yourself.” It was the revelation of this method that gave the people of Israel their name in Abraham’s times (“Israel” from “Yashar Kel” [“straight to the upper force”]).

The problem standing in Israel’s way to become a positive example for the world is simply hatred between Israelis. Therefore, a more unified and positive future or its opposite depends on whether or not the people of Israel come together, above their hatred, and show a positive unifying example to humanity.

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

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What really is the intended meaning of ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’?“

Before the commandment of “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” described the key prohibition in holding a correct relationship with the Creator: that we should not use our relationship with the Creator for self-benefit. Receiving pleasure for self-benefit alone kills our desire.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery” is similar, but viewed from a different angle. It means to not use our connections with others for self-benefit.

The Creator’s quality is love and bestowal, and adultery is an act of receiving for self-benefit alone. If we receive pleasure at the expense of other people, then it is considered committing adultery.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the 8th commandment consist of (Thou shalt not steal)?“

The eighth commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” is the same as the previous commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” with the sole difference being that adultery and theft relate to two different levels of desires.

Nature is constructed of four levels of desire: inanimate, vegetative, animate and speaking (also, human). These four levels of desire exist in nature in general as well as within us.

Theft is then a similar action to adultery, but it is a prohibition at a different level of desire. Committing adultery is when we use people for the sake of self-benefit, whereas theft is when we use the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels of nature for the sake of self-benefit.

Therefore, where “Thou shalt not commit adultery” is an act of using others for self-benefit at the human level, “Thou shalt not steal” is an act of using the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels of nature for self-benefit.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” mean if not what it says?“

The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” means to cause no detriment whatsoever to others.

The previous five commandments explain a process that leads to us receiving the upper forces, and we need to become a receptacle that lets these forces act correctly in us, not interfering with the effect that they have on us.

Using these forces correctly means to use them for the sake of bestowal, and thus “Thou shalt not kill” means the contrary, that we use these forces for self-benefit.

In other words, if we use our connection with the spiritual forces, with the Creator, for self-benefit, then this act is called “killing.” By doing so, we kill our desire. Our desire gets killed because it becomes filled with pleasure; the pleasure aimed at self-benefit kills the desire, and the desire becomes extinguished.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it mean to covet thy neighbor’s wife?“

The states in which we progress should be aimed only at bestowal, and not for self-benefit.

Our state is very interesting regarding our spiritual path. On one hand, we are alone and the whole world is inside us, as it is written, “A person is a small world.”

On the other hand, all of our inner desires appear as characters existing outside of us. The same applies to our like-minded friends: it seems to us that they exist outside of us, and we later gradually start seeing that they are all inside us.

“Neighbors” refers to these like-minded friends of ours.

To spiritually progress, i.e., to discover our connection with the Creator, we need to process their desires, which are called “wives,” from a spiritual degree, i.e., a degree of bestowal. This means that we need to dress into these desires and work on them for their benefit, and not for self-benefit.

This has nothing to do with genders as we understand them in our world. The female part represents desires to receive, the fundamental matter of creation, and the male part represents the desire to bestow, which is the nature of the Creator.

Therefore, by working to benefit the desire to receive, and not to use it for self-benefit, we act at a spiritual degree, like the Creator Himself, and we thus implement the commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” In other words, we operate at a degree of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Ten Commandments are located at the level of the ten Sefirot. The commandment “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” is the most serious of all the commandments because it deals with the lowest internal egoistic quality, namely using the desire to receive in order to receive for self-benefit alone.

The prohibition on such an intention lets us fully apply an intention to bestow upon our desire to receive, so that we can enter into a mutual connection among each other at a higher spiritual level, where we are not divided by gender.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is it possible to exit this pandemic on a pathway to a more decent society?“

“Don’t do to others what you hate” is the foundation of positive human attitudes. With this principle, we drive away any harm, and it is the best remedy that we can generate in human society, and with it, we will defeat the pandemic and return to become a good and prosperous society.

We have reached a state where humanity has become a single globally interdependent and interconnected society, and one of the conditions of our global interdependence is that one person cannot enjoy a good life if others don’t enjoy a good life to the same extent.

We can thus better our world only by increasing our concern for each other. To that end, we need a new kind of education that prioritizes positive human connection, and which is taught to both adults and children. If we establish positive connections in society, then we will be on course to leave this pandemic behind, and enter a new harmonious life that is balanced with nature.

The pandemic has emerged in order to pave a path to a new world of positive human connections. We should not look back at how things were, but focus on the upgrade in our attitudes to each other that we can implement here and now. That is the way to shift human society onto a much more positive path.

The only question is whether we will listen to what nature is telling us through such events as this pandemic and make adjustments accordingly, or whether we will try to continue our lives as before. The former will lead us to a new level of happiness and prosperity, and the latter will lead us to a long path of suffering until we eventually agree to change our attitudes to each other.

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

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