Question: The Torah attributes stars to different astrological signs. Does the Creator manage people’s souls by the stars? What is the relationship between the soul and the stars?

Answer: There is nothing special about the stars. It is simply an allegory and that’s all. There is no power in the stars and it makes no difference whether a certain star is destroyed or remains. These are simple inanimate systems that have no effect on anything that is spiritual and upper.

Astrology first appeared a long time ago because people wanted to know where they are, how they should behave, how to measure time, and what to do.

In ancient Babylon astrologers could tell a person’s character and what will happen to him according to the stars. In those times people were much more sensitive and closer to nature and could say a lot about a person according to different signs. But this isn’t the system of the upper management. This is the system of our corporeal existence that could make life safer and more comfortable.

Today it is quite meaningless since we have lost our sensitivity to nature and there are no sages like the ones who lived in the past; they couldn’t help us anyway today. We are so negative in our thoughts and desires and so polluted by different chemicals that nothing can help us.

Comment: But people are still interested in the predictions of the Bulgarian Baba Venga and others.

Answer: This is only natural, but it isn’t the wisdom of Kabbalah and they cannot teach us anything correctly either. They can only accurately predict something in advance, but they cannot change anything.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/27/15

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Question: After a thousand year rift that divided Christianity between East and West, an historical meeting was held recently between Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill. Did they truly unite?

Answer: It is not whether they united or not; the fact is that all religions worldwide universally exist within human egoism, which causes them to enter into an irreversible crisis. The ego has grown and religion could not give the evolving person an answer to the question that arises in him about the meaning of life: How he can manage his life correctly, toward what he must bring it and toward what nature is leading us?

Religion has remained on the same level that it was 2,000 years ago when the nations of the world got it from the wisdom of Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah was the religion of the people of Israel until the destruction of the Second Temple. Then out of it came modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Since then, they haven’t changed.

Neither Judaism, Christianity, nor Islam can give an answer to their faithful audience because humans have evolved in the direction of attainment. Since humans have attained our world with the help of science, they also want to recognize and achieve their fate, their life, their destiny, and everything else that is found above them scientifically.

But religion is not capable of that. It can only serve a small, egoistic person, making it possible for him to suppress the question about the meaning of life. It says to a person, “Believe,” and he believes, and in order to settle down into this mollification, he slowly lowers a screen over his eyes. Then he apparently doesn’t see or think, he believes and that’s it. Moreover, this doesn’t depend on his intellect but on his inner psychological need.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that to everything that religion preaches, a person must truly apply the religious Mitzvah (commandment), “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18); and the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches how to apply it.

Religion talks about the existence of an upper world, a Gan Eden (Paradise, Heaven), a Gehenna (Hell), and the rest of its symbols, and the wisdom of Kabbalah claims that it is up to us to come to discover these concepts now, here in this world. Our world includes all the worlds generally, and all the various possible situations can be seen and attained while still within this world, in this life, right here and now.

And so, of course, Kabbalah, a further development of all the sciences, comes to change religions..So understandably, the religions are very opposed to it. This is less so for Christianity and Islam because it is still far from them.

But this is certainly so for Judaism since it sees a very great threat to its continued existence in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah just shakes up the entire enormous mechanism that has been built by religion to serve, to subdue, to influence and control the people, the believers, in that it opposes all the rules and laws that exist in popular Judaism, which tell a person to shut his eyes and believe without any true understanding of both the prayers and the Mitzvot. Understandably, in this form they cannot talk about fulfilling the law, “And you shall love your friend as yourself”; all of that is forgotten and left on the side.

So a very big difference exists between religion and the wisdom of Kabbalah regarding a person’s approach to creation, humanity, and everything that happens with him. This is talking about a fundamental change in his internal mechanism of understanding and perception. In other words, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person must rise above the animate level within himself to a higher level.

Humanity is facing a big problem that will produce suffering on its spiritual level. We are in the beginning of this process and I hope that we can lay down a good and solid foundation for humanity. Then it will be easier for us to move forward.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/14/16

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New Life #507 – Why Is the Bible Considered To Be a Holy Book?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

The holy books speak about something higher than our world. In order to attain and understand what they are saying, we must become holy. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us that holiness is the characteristic of bestowal and love. These are divine qualities that every person in our world must acquire.

Holy books were written by people who attained divinity, and their goal was to help us also attain what they attained. The Kabbalists explain that those authors wrote these holy books in the “language of the branches,” which is a special coded language through which they could describe the higher forces in our language.

The Bible is not a historical book; it is a living book. It is a book in which high spiritual states are described that every person can and must ascend and attain. All that we must do is to take the words about this world that are written in the book and explore and attain their true meaning, which is that they basically are describing a world that is above our world. Basically, when we read the Bible with its true inner meaning, we discover the operating system that manages our lives and our world.

After all, everything in our world—the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking—are operated by spiritual forces. All we must do is to recognize this operating system in order to attain the properties of bestowal and love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #507 — Why Is The Bible Considered To Be A Holy Book?,” 1/22/15

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Question: Several influential rabbis strongly condemned the campaign in support of the mobilization of the ultra-Orthodox youth in military and alternative service.

In particular, the rabbis in Jerusalem said that the campaign should be considered sinful and deserves condemnation. They even signed an Halachic ruling.

It is a long struggle that is now gaining momentum. More recently, police detained a group of ultra-Orthodox on suspicion of incitement against the supporters of the mobilization. What do you think about this?

Answer: This is a big problem that has to be solved. I can not imagine any of the Orthodox Jews that are surrounded by the Arab population, not being protected by the Israeli army. On the one hand, they understand that perfectly. On the other hand, do not wish to participate.

There is no doubt that the Arabs don’t differentiate between non-religious and religious Jews and don’t really care who is who. Today, they are the spearhead in the attacks to destroy Israel and the Jews.

And the ultra-Orthodox Israelis must defend themselves from third-party influence. They protect themselves, the “ghettos” in which they live: Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, ultra-Orthodox areas in all the cities of Israel, because otherwise they can not exist. They are afraid of dissolution in the secular community, and therefore I understand it.

Question: Don’t you see a solution?

Answer: There is no solution. It is a serious schism that has been going on for a long time. There must be a division between the general religious population and the Orthodox sector because there are other religious sectors who serve in the army, and many of them even serve in combat units.

This is basically a political game because from the non-religious perspective, the Israeli Defense Forces don’t need them. We simply must leave this issue and not deal with it. It is a political squabble before elections when each party takes pride in being for or against it, and thus tries to make a political gain.

Generally speaking, this issue isn’t worth discussing since it will lead to nothing. I don’t side with any of the parties. I simply am stating a fact.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/1/16

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New Life 682 – What Is Kashrut?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The issue of Kashrut is a major issue in Judaism, and the nation was built on it. What is Kashrut and why is it a good thing? The natural system operates on us through 613 forces and we are made of 613 forces that have to be compatible with the forces of nature. Performing a Mitzva (commandment) means a reconciliation between me and the forces that operate on me, and a person who performs a Mitzva is called a “Kosher” person.

The dietary laws of Kashrut are determined by upper roots, not according to the Turkish or British law. Every upper root has a branch in our world, taking a lamb and a pig, for example, there are such animals and there are also such internal attributes in a person. To split the hoof and to ruminate means to differentiate between right and left, between receiving and bestowal and not being filled directly.

The upper world is the upper system of nature and we have to be kosher, which means to be compatible and in harmony with it. When we feel how nature operates on us we call it “God,” and we can have a channel of communication with Him, a dialog. The clash with the forces of nature that operate on us leads to problems in life, while being adapted to them allows us to live in harmony, but since the destruction of the Temple, we have lost the adaptation and the connection with the upper system and are left with only external actions and signs. Other nations also have laws as to what is allowed and what is forbidden to eat, but not according to spiritual roots like in Judaism.

A person who corrects his desires according to the upper system begins to feel it and becomes a kosher person.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 682 — What Is Kashruth?” 1/26/16

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New Life 681 – The Role Of The Three Religions
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Part of humanity has a passive ego, like in the Far East, and the part that has a developed ego created the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The ego began to develop from Judaism in ancient Babylon. Abraham discovered the upper force and invited everyone to learn how to discover the upper force in the connection between them. The nation of Israel was united with the upper force until the destruction of the First Temple, until the connection of love between the children of Israel was ruined, and since then, Judaism has turned into a religion of external actions without the attainment of the Creator.

Popular Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the three lines that are supposed to lead humanity forward and prepare it for the revelation of the Creator. Christianity has taught a big part of the world about the existence of the upper force and has assimilated concepts like prayer, reward and punishment, this world, the next world, and more.

Christianity even has developed culture, art, science, and higher education in universities. Later, Islam began to spread, and the Christian sages who underestimated the Sufi sages forced the Muslims to convert to Christianity by rape and by sword.

Today, Christianity is growing weaker and Islam is rising. Later, the two religions will unite against us Jews, and we will be forced to repent, which means to return to love of others and the revelation of the Creator between us. Then, the upper force will fight for us so that we will be able to change all of mankind for the better and spread love among everyone.

In fact, none of the religions actually engages in love of others and doesn’t set it as a goal, including Judaism. Only the wisdom of Kabbalah explains to humanity how to return to the connection between us and thus pull the entire world out of the crisis it is in. This is the correct meaning of being light unto the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 681 – The Role Of The Three Religions,” 1/21/16

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Question: Are Kabbalah books written according to the Jewish tradition?

Answer: Kabbalah books have nothing to do with any tradition. They explain how to treat other people and how to build a relationship between this world and the highest world, to discover the secret parts of the universe—all the other worlds that are around us and govern us.

Then we will be able to manage our lives in the reverse order. At the same time, we will reach beyond the physical limits of our short lives, our small forces, and can see through time.

There is no need to tie the wisdom of Kabbalah to any tradition; a Kabbalist can be Indian, Arab, Norwegian, or from South America—no matter who. It does not say anything about earthly rules except one: bringing people together into one integral whole just like all of nature.
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From the Talk at the Moscow Jewish Cultural Center, 11/24/15

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Question: During the years 2007 to 2008, residents of Libya and northern Iraq stopped investing in children’s education, in projects that dealt with their policies, and began living as if with no future, as if subconsciously acknowledging that they felt a crisis was near.

Answer: People are drawn to the ideological connection between them. They have understood that humanity needs some kind of special mission, goal.

Thus, ISIS and other organizations were created that, as a result, developed a terrorist system that attracts youth from all nations in the world since it gives them hope and primarily because they gather under the slogan, “Together we will achieve something, change something.” This appeal attracts people.

We need to show the world a parallel system with a call to attract them to good deeds, good ways, and not negative ones. Otherwise we will lose everyone. After all, with each day that passes, more and more people turn to drugs or are attracted to all kinds of terrorist organizations not connected to ISIS that are being organized in different places

Question: Over the past decade of radical Islam, the so-called Jihad gained huge popularity. But in parallel, we’re also seeing the growth or formation of these extreme ideological currents in other religions. Could this indicate that the old civilization is ending?

Answer: All religions are structured on the same egoism, and although they have proclaimed “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” not one of them is involved in this and are not able to be involved because if they should become involved, no one would join them. Thus, there is no future for religions: not Judaism, not Christianity, and not Islam.

The future lies only in the development of mutual connection between human beings. We need to hope that this connection is not built on the basis of mutual hatred like ISIS, but on the foundation of mutual love and attraction to good mutual cooperation of all peoples of the world.

We all are connected to each other and are within one single system, and the question is for what purpose we use this system. We can use it like ISIS and all kinds of Jihad organizations do, or it’s possible to develop the correct perspective on human existence as a whole, where everyone is equal and no ideology or system tries to control or subjugate others.

Question: Can we control the process of self-development?

Answer: No, for this to happen, we need to abandon the previous paradigm completely, to renounce our ego and our nature, and want to change. This hasn’t arrived yet.  First we need to want to find the meaning of life.

The main mission standing before us now is to confront humanity with the question of what is the meaning of our existence. And then we gradually find the correct goal and the way to attain it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/29/15

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Question: Is there a connection between Israel, the Jewish people, Judaism, and the Torah?

Answer: Unfortunately these concepts are only slightly connected at the moment.

The Jewish people are the nation that was founded according to the laws of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the laws of close cooperation, mutual help, and a mutual struggle over egoism, to raise above egosim in the connection between us.

To do this there is a whole method that teaches us how to rise above our increasingly growing ego. When we reach this connection, the spiritual connection that appears between us enables us to be a nation.

Modern Judaism is divided into two parts:

• Judaism that implements the external part of the Torah and focuses on observing the Mitzvot (commandments) in the corporeal earthly form as Orthodox Jews do.
• Judaism that implements the internal part of the Torah and focuses on intentions: “What am I doing this for, what is my goal?” The focus here is not on the physical observation but on the internal observation of the Mitzvot that are aimed at ascending above our nature, and the ascent that follows to the next level of our existence, a level on which we exist before we are born and after we die.

These two parts of the Torah are opposites: the internal part of the Torah is called the wisdom of Kabbalah and the external part is called the keeping of the corporeal Mitzvot.

The wisdom of Kabbalah will gradually be revealed not only to the Jews but also to all the people in the world because everyone has to eventually reach complete mutual cooperation between them thanks to the wisdom of Kabbalah, since otherwise this world has no right to exist.

The year 5,776 according to the Hebrew calendar is now coming to an end. According to the Torah humanity has to reach the full mutual connection by the end of the year 6,000. There are 224 years left to reach the state in which we will be able to feel as organs in one healthy body, living in complete cooperation between us. Can you imagine that? Everyone connected to seven billion other people.

This is what we have to do. It is possible on the spiritual level. When you ascend a bit with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to see a totally different dimension, the leadership system of our world in mutual cooperation. In fact you can choose your future.
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Question: What is the difference between a group for Kabbalah students of ten people and a sect whose purpose is to exploit its members?

Answer: A group of Kabbalah students is based on absolute pure love and in such a group you don’t obey those who manage it but only its spiritual goal. Therefore it is up to a person whether to join it or not.

In a sect, on the other hand, there are many conditions; it is very limited and closed, has its distinct ideology, and the closer one gets to the center of the sect, the more and more hidden it becomes. A sect also has typical rituals such as prayers, meditations, etc. Such things are not part of studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

A group of Kabbalists is not closed. It is based on the principle of mutual love, honesty, warm-heartedness, mutual inclusion, and mutual help according to the principles of Kabbalists and the sources that are studied. The only ritual it encourages is sharing a meal.

There are no conditions as to religion, race, or a nationality. A person who wants to join the group is accepted and if he wants to leave, he can do so. Everything is open and free; all the study materials are available on the Internet in every language; there is no barricade or separation.

The wisdom of Kabbalah encourages the unity of all mankind in mutual love and good mutual relations without any coercion, equally for everyone and with everyone.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/29/15

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