Entries in the 'Society' Category

The Family Of The Future Is A Fusion Of Minds And Hearts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does an earthly family with a corrected spiritual relationship look like?

Answer: It is difficult to say since we have not yet seen such examples in our lives. For now, we are still in a state of breakage, in exile.

Therefore, since the time of Rabbi Akiva, after the destruction of the Temple, we know nothing about such families who would correspond to the corrected spiritual relationship with the Creator.

Moreover, it is written about how Kabbalists of the past suffered because of their wives who often had very difficult personalities and presented many grievances and demands. Kabbalists accepted it as inevitable and a consequence of the breakage and exile in which we exist.

A spiritual couple should feel as if it exists in one body, in common agreement and understanding, completing each other in a fusion of minds, hearts, and mutual intentions. Everything that exists in the body of the other, in their mind and heart, I accept as my own thoughts and feelings.

And these are not just nice words but are truly felt even on the most earthly, physiological level. If something is hurting in your partner, then you feel this pain in your body, even if they do not tell you about it. This is a complete union of bodies in accordance with the union of souls.

We will come to this state as soon as we begin to correct ourselves in relation to our general love for one another.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/30/15

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The Cause Of Anti-Semitism

Dr. Michael Laitman

Question: The Jewish people do a lot of good things and good deeds. But I see that non-Jews view it negatively, and instead of seeing us as good, they see us as bad. Why?

Answer: What good did we, the smartest and most educated people, do for the world? Did we perform our mission to be the light for the nations? Why should they love us?

Humanity feels intuitively that we bring harm and hatred into the world. We cannot imagine how this could be possible, so ask, “What are we doing wrong? We do not wish anyone any harm! Why does everyone hate us and not the people who seek to destroy others? For what?” Start to investigate this and try to find the true cause of this phenomenon.

Why does North Korea, with whom we have never had any relationship, hold first place in the world for anti-Semitism? Why such hatred?

Because anti-Semitism exists inside nature, is its law, and there is nothing we can do about it. No amount of logic will help us. If this phenomenon has been observed for thousands of years, then we should take it seriously, and not on the level of feelings. We must get to the bottom of why we occupy one place in nature and the rest of the world another.

I have been studying laws of nature for the past 40 years. Prior to that, my specialty was bio-cybernetics. But over these 40 years I have come to realize that unity is the cardinal foundation that exists in all of nature, and there is nothing one can do about it because we cannot go against a law of nature.

Abraham was not a Jew, but an ancient Babylonian who worshiped idols. But yearning to understand why there was such disconnection in his society, he revealed that in nature, there is a law of unity and that humanity needs to come to unification. All of nature strives for oneness within itself from the time of the Big Bang until final correction, and having revealed this law, Abraham began to teach it to anyone who wanted to learn.

The most sensitive, developed, and responsive people joined him. With them he went out of Babylon. They started calling themselves Yehudim, from the word “Yichud” (unity) or Ivrim from the word “Laavor” (to cross over).

Prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, this group fulfilled its mission. But since the time when the last exile emerged, they have not. And until we come together and understand our mission, until we grasp it and announce it to the whole world, we can not expect anything good.

Because ultimately, all the Babylonians, i.e., all humanity, must arrive at unification. And it is we who have to bring this unity to the world.
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From a public lecture in New York, 7/20/15

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A Good Example Of Education For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is so special about the education method that you suggest? After all they also speak about love of others in schools and about the need to treat friends nicely, but we see that it isn’t working.

Answer: Talking about how to behave has nothing to do with education, since education is based on learning from examples. Only examples operate on and influence a child. If we want an adult to be well educated, he too needs to have the right examples, just like a child. We have no choice. We need to establish systems that will set an example of the right relations between people. But from where can we take such examples if everyone mutually hates one another? Who will set the example for us?

Therefore it is necessary to organize special workshops in small groups called tens for all sectors and social classes within the population. We hold such circles all over the country in Israel: in Eilat, in the Tel Aviv harbor, in Tiberias, and in other cities. Many people already know us. If a person participates in such a circle, this circle becomes an example for him and he begins to feel that something special is going on within it.

Strangers who find themselves sitting next to one another by chance begin to communicate in the circle according to certain rules and about a certain topic and begin to discover feelings of connection, unity, warmth, and understanding. Their eyes shine and they look at one another in a totally different way than they did when the workshop began. People totally change during this 15-20 minutes. All this disappears, of course when they go home afterward. A person has to repeat this process every day and then after a week or a month he will change.

What I say is based on the great experience I have had. I have many students in Israel and all over the world who thus are changing and so are the new people who know what the success of the world depends on and how we can rise from the general global crisis that is founded on mutual hatred between all the countries, peoples, and individuals.

We can overcome it instead of advancing towards terrible destruction. The Torah says that we will reach a state in which “a person’s enemies are in his home,” which means that a person will see that everyone rejects him, is distant from him, and refuses to understand him, within his own home.

Is it possible to live this way?! After all, we know that our body lives and operates in harmony between all its parts while a dead body is destroyed. So let’s choose the right way!
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/2/15

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Only Israel Will Save Western Civilization

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Dr Dan Schueftan, head of  National Security Research Center – Haifa University): “We should only deal with managing the conflict which means to continuously engage in improving their life, but this is management and not an attempt to resolve the conflict. The root of the unique problem of the Israeli society is the fact that the Arabs are a minority in our state, but a minority that feels that it is the majority because it is the majority in the Middle East. The Jews, on the other hand, are the majority in this state but they have a strong feeling that they are a minority.

“The global situation affects the Arabs and they feel that they are part of the big Arab world. If the global Arab society tries to solve its structural problems and turns to barbarism, part of the Israeli Arabs also show their interest in these ideas. It is actually this paradox of consciousness of the Israeli Arabs that leads to the conflict and the confrontations which cannot actually be resolved. Any attempt to solve this conflict only worsens the situation and threatens the existence of the state of Israel.

“The point is that Israel appears to be a colonial enterprise, but the attempts to change it according to western models may destroy its foundations. The peace agreement of ‘two states for two nations’ actually leads to the creation of two states: a western one and one that is not Jewish, gradually turning the state of Israel into an Arab state.

“The Israeli Arabs have never seen themselves as Israelis and they don’t want to see themselves as such, but they wish neither to leave “evil” Israel nor join the ‘wonderful’ Palestinian state that will sometime be founded.. They want to live in Israel, but not accept it as their state. This is typical of the Middle East. The Arab society has realized that it will not be able to come close to western society in its standard of living. It is actually drawing further away from it and will not be any better in the future as the process of destruction in the Middle East continues.

“What stands in the way of the Middle Eastern states catching up with the western states is the intolerance and the reluctance to accept others. If a person treats his wife like an object, you can invest as much money as you wish, but it will never be a western society, and science and a western lifestyle will never be developed. Only those who exhibit extreme attitudes can count on the support of the masses.

“Arab immigrants in European countries and in the US develop their own self image, thus preserving from what they have escaped. The Americans stubbornly believe that democratic principles will be accepted by both the Arab immigrants and the Middle East; that everything will change for the better and everyone will live by western standards. But the genie is bursting out of the bottle destroying everything around it and things are getting worse and worse. The only saving of the west and of America is a change of attitude regarding the Arab problem.

“Of all the states in the western world, the situation is Israel is the best because we understand this problem. If anyone can save western civilizations it is us.”

My Comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah sees this problem as given to us from Above so that we will develop spiritually.

And, I see the same solution: only Israel can save western civilization!
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Careful: Words Can Kill

laitman_546_01Question: For a long time, humanity dreamt about democracy and freedom of speech. A lot of blood was shed fighting for this right. Freedom of speech is one of the most significant achievements of modern man.

When dictators come to power, the first thing they do is limit the freedom of speech. Why is it so important to us to freely express our thoughts and opinions?

Answer: The desire for the freedom of speech stems from human egoism and our desire to be “important.” Freedom of speech adds social “weight” when we proudly stand up and express our opinion. This is how we state our presence in this life and world.

The desire to express oneself derives from our egoism; everybody has it. When our egoism grows, it becomes more and more complicated and demanding. So, it requires a broader range of self-expression.

Thousands of years ago people didn’t have a need to speak openly. Living in a small village, they didn’t lack freedom of speech: What were they supposed to talk about anyway?

Modern man appreciates his freedom of speech, but do we know what it is?. If this is the freedom to say whatever we want, then how are we sure of the correctness of our views? Do we really understand that we are responsible for the words, which can hurt someone?

The same can be said for government elections. Do we understand that we are responsible for the future of our countries and even for the entire world when we submit our ballot?

Freedom of speech depends on a person’s developmental level, education, and understanding of what they talk about and what influence they produce by saying what they say. These are not the speeches in Hyde Park, London that entertain tourists.

Before we take advantage of the freedom of speech, we have to be properly educated because it imposes a great responsibility. Not only are uttered words strong weapons, but even our thoughts. Our thoughts soar around the world and collide with each other, creating a field of thoughts that impact us and the whole world.

Therefore, freedom of speech obligates us to be at a certain level and to accept a huge responsibility. When saying something out loud, we have to make sure that our words spreading around the world will enhance correction instead of just proving my truth as it appears to me in my egoism.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/21/15

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Communism: Utopia Or Reality, Part 11

laitman_291Question: In the article, “The Last Generation,” Baal HaSulam wrote that one way or another humanity would come to a communistic society. What kind of communism was he talking about?

Answer: This would be a society in which a person is not living to make a profit. People would be educated so that they will have no need to take from society more than is needed for existence. One would not be concerned about one’s self because the society takes all of his or her concerns upon itself.

One’s work, first and foremost, is the desire to be properly connected with everyone else and to create the same benefits and the same good company that are imperative for society to supply a person’s necessities. All of this is solved together with education, which acts in parallel with changes in society, neither earlier nor later.

However, the main thing is that a person reaches a state of mutual connection with others where he or she doesn’t feel any difference between him or herself and others. He is so connected with them, that, for him, “I” and “we” merge completely. The ego that separates us disappears, and each one begins to feel others as himself.

A person begins to feel everything that happens on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, and all the people of our world as his personal body. This gives him a sensation of infinity, lack of boundaries, and a common existence.

Thanks to this development of our sensors, we begin to feel the world as a whole, infinite in time, movement, and space. This is the upper world in which the person exists, and in the meantime none of us can be called this because, on his own, he is a highly organized and uncorrected beast.

So, we must have an established system of education that is comprehensive and worldwide. The role of the person is to attract the positive force into our negative world so that, on the basis of the two forces, he can begin to ascend and feel an absolutely different creation, another world. Baal HaSulam said that, sooner or later, we will reach precisely such a just and happy society.

To be continued.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/11/15

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Communism: Utopia Or Reality, Part 5

Laitman_083Sooner or later, humanity must become a happy society. However, this can be reached either through suffering or through awareness.

The path of awareness is an investigation of our final state, making it possible to plan for it, in other words, finding out how to become like it. Then we will have no need for a “stick” to drive us toward happiness.

How do we do it? The final state of all of nature is to bring itself to absolute harmony and balance, so people need to perceive themselves in the identical place, becoming like nature, an absolutely balanced system.

But so far, we are on the path of suffering; feel it for yourself. What is it that is stopping us?

In nature, there are two opposing forces that tend toward equilibrium. For every positive or negative event, there is its corresponding opposite: plus – minus, north – south, and so forth. The laws of their combination are the formulas that we study in physics (inanimate matter), in botany (plant matter), and in zoology (animal matter).

Yet we do not understand the  human. There is insufficient knowledge and opportunity because when we study the nature of the previous stages of development (still, vegetative, and animate), we investigate it from top down, from the higher level. If we are on the same level as that which we must investigate, then we cannot say anything about it ourselves because we are on the same level. So we introduce errors because of our relationship to the object of investigation—us.

In order to know our nature, we need to rise to a higher level, and this is not possible. We learn a little psychology, but it cannot be called science because science is the study of nature at all levels from top to bottom. So, the human level is inaccessible to us. We do not know about ourselves.

Here we have the support of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains how one can rise to the next level and investigate our level from there. Studying Kabbalah before ascending to the next level—called Adam (Man) or “speaking”—we can discover what a person really is and how it to reach that level.

According to Kabbalah, the way by which to realize ourselves on the next level, investigating ourselves from there and beginning to behave in our world, is self-education. This means that we must raise ourselves to a new sensory, spiritual level of relationship and community, which is defined by the simple condition of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

This phrase speaks about the law of existence for all humanity as one single entity. When a person begins to get close to this state, it will be clear that this is the true communism that people once dreamed of.

To be continued…
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/11/15

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Study All Your Life

laitman_283_01Question: Where should I study after the age of forty?

Answer: I believe that a person should study his entire life. He mustn’t be free of the framework of the teachings of the wisdom of connection. He should have one notebook all his life where the grades for every subject he has studied would be recorded and the records of the instructor that taught him about the fixed system in which he accounts for what a person has learned.

It would be even better if these records were input into a general computer where I could type someone’s family name and see what that person has learned, what he knows, and most importantly, whether he has had a chance to correct himself and to what extent he is connected to others. According to these data, it would be possible to judge which actions he can perform for the sake of the society, what else he needs, and so forth. The society would use these records in order to assess every individual and to assign him to the desirable activity for the benefit of the society.

Question: Does this mean that it isn’t a fantasy and that you really believe that there must be some positive surveillance of everyone?

Answer: It is better than if the FBI or the KGB kept a file on him. If the KGB looked for whether you are an enemy of the state, here they would look for whether you are a friend of the state.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 5/13/15

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Man—The Redundant Element In The System

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Vasily Tyutin, publicist): “We are on the verge of a new socioeconomic order. Excessive productivity and production are growing, and the crisis we are facing will be about machines and robots replacing man in different jobs.

“We will not need one another. Man will be unable to sell his work and will only be a potential consumer. Billions will be unable to offer something to one another or to the system, becoming totally useless, looking for food and social services. The major global means for regulating the system will be regulating the population or waging wars that will eliminate redundant people. The alternative version of the future can be a system that doesn’t abuse redundant people.”

My Comment: The future social system will be integral, based on complete voluntary and equal relationships, in the likeness of the structure of the upper governance of the world. We will learn how to build and manage this social structure by practically accepting and implementing the science of Kabbalah.
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The Spirit Of The Russian Jewry

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For some time great Kabbalists lived in Russian cities: the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and others. Did this influence the spirit of Russian Jewry?

Answer: Without a doubt, students of the Baal Shem Tov lived in every city. The Baal Shem Tov first began to apply the wisdom of Kabbalah that the Ari revealed in the 16th century. He taught this to his many Kabbalist students, those who attained the highest level in the system. Their role was to arouse inspiration in the people, to correctly elevate, stabilize, and lead them forward. This was the idea of restoring the spirit of the people, which they had already lost at the time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), when they fell from the level of mutual love to mutual hatred. So the need ripened to raise the people from the egoistic level of rejection, to the altruistic level of mutual love.

The Baal Shem Tov established what was called Hassidism, practical Kabbalistic work. But it is necessary to say that the Hassidism of today is much different. The Baal Shem Tov changed the study of the Ari to bring it closer to the people and show them them inner correction. In this way, he implemented the general rule of the Torah, “Love thy neighbor as yourself.” The people were then able to leave both spiritual and physical exile, because one is connected to the other. But if a person was not ready for spiritual redemption, he also would not attain physical freedom.

So for two generations until the 18th century, the Kabbalistic current that was called Hassidism prospered. In every village and settlement, there were people who were involved in attaining the Creator on the basis of the right connection between them, which is what the Torah requires. In this way, Judaism became spiritual, and many people appeared who became teachers. At the same time, opponents of Hassidism appeared, but no matter what, both groups began to rise spiritually and this played an immense role in influencing the environment.

Around that time, opportunistic people began to appear, which changed everything and replaced the popular current so that they were no longer involved with the attainment of Torah. Instead, they simply carried out the physical Mitzvot (commandments) with some kind of slightly greater inner aspiration, but no more than that. This means that Hassidism fell to a lower level. But until the end of the 19th century and in spite of all this, there were still a multitude of Kabbalists who felt the higher world, the system of management. From this, they taught others. This very strongly influenced the spirit of Russian Jewry and was rooted in them forever. So the continued discovery of the spiritual world, the discovery of the soul, the feeling of the upper world, and the entire system of discovery of the Creator as the higher force of management, pushed, and today still pushes a large part of the Jews of Russia towards true spiritual attainment.

Among my students today, it is possible to find many from the former Soviet Union and Russians still living in Russia. Even today, the spiritual potential that was inserted into them by the followers of the Baal Shem Tov still lives within them.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/07/15

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