Question: If previously the process of new students coming to your community consisted primarily in the fact that people met physically, got acquainted, and influenced each other, today this is not the case. Does it reduce the degree of connection and the impact of communication?

Answer: I think that, on the contrary, it is perceived more clearly and explicitly.

If, for example, a friend of mine is ill now, then I really feel that I am missing something, i.e., something has formed in me that needs treatment, recovery, and replenishment.

I believe that our world group in the virtual world of communication, if you can call it that, has first of all grown. If there used to be 2,000 of us, today there are already 6,000 or 7,000 of us clearly present at systematic lessons and taking part in the life of the community.

If today we made a virtual, all-inclusive congress, the number of participants would be close to 10,000 people. We see that such communication helps us. It does not oblige people, but on the contrary, does not bind them. You come in whenever you want, attend lessons, and discuss various topics through computer communication.

But time did it all. Therefore we need to actively explore virtual space.

Comment: It is quite possible that by using modern technologies we can also allow such a form of development of your community as a real virtual world in which we will sit in the same hall wearing augmented-reality glasses and study together in one huge congress hall, just as we do today sitting in front of computer screens.

My Response: It is not a problem at all. Today I feel my students from South America to North America, across the entirety of both continents. I feel students living in Africa, Australia, and Asia, in absolutely all countries. They feel like they are with us.

Comment: Imagine such a picture that other people will be able to enter this virtual huge congress hall.

My Response: We are open to everyone. We never hide or close anything. And why? Our task is to connect all of humanity to this.
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From KabTV’s “Virtual World” 2/9/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are the Arab nations and Israel going to ever have peace?“

An editorial published by the Kuwaiti daily Arab Times called for the Gulf states to normalize relations with Israel. Arab Times Editor-in-Chief Ahmed al-Jarallah urged that “All the Gulf states should normalize relations with Israel due to the fact that peace with this most advanced country is the right thing to do” and also condemned the Gulf states’ support for Palestine, mentioning that Palestinians’ negative attitude to the Gulf states in return is an “insult.”

In general, normalization between Israel and Arab countries is a positive phenomenon, but it depends on our attitude toward reality, humanity and our cousins. In relation to reality, we need to consider how we bring about peace and harmony in the world. In relation to humanity, we need to seek how to bring about education that can guide humanity on how to positively connect above its differences and divisions, and by doing so, realize a whole new life of goodness and happiness. And our attitude toward our Arab cousins should be that we wish to bring them closer to us than even the rest of humanity.

The Arab world will understand that it is beneficial to make peace with Israel when we, the Jews, will soften our hearts and positively connect to each other. By making peace among ourselves, then to the same extent and even more so, we will see how peace emerges between us and the Arabs, the Palestinians and everyone else. By implementing positive connections among each other, the world would also receive the drive to do so.

As a principle, if there is Jewish unity, then unity and its myriad positive effects would ripple throughout the world. Likewise, if division and hatred reign supreme among Jews, then so too such negative qualities expand throughout the world.

We would thus be wise to imagine that the relations we implement among each other—even just in Israel, among everyone living within its borders—influences the whole of reality, all of the nations, and literally every person. I understand that it is hard to grasp, depict, and agree with such a concept, but it is nevertheless the truth.

Based on the video “Arab Times Editor Calls for Normalization between Israel and the Gulf States – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Medium published my new article “The War That Awakened Europe from Its Slumber”

Despite the danger, the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia boarded a train to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to EU officials, this war has welded Western Europe together more than any other event since World War II. The continent will now arm itself against security threats.

In this war, Russia played the role of the unifying nation and brought European countries closer together. It gave them a good shake to make them feel that there are other important things beyond greed for oil and gas, such as security and preservation of nationalities. The Russians have done a wonderful job in that respect. Not by choice, probably unexpected, but that’s the way it turned out.

Europe has so far imagined that it can assert itself without investing in its existence and security. Each country has believed it can rest on its laurels forever without making any effort, contributing only a minimal share for security, nothing more. But that is not the way to ensure lasting security.

Due to the worsening situation, European countries are forced to examine the relevance of their NATO membership, which also requires NATO to prove that it really cares about everyone. To this day, when a country proposed to increase the defense budget, everyone blatantly replied that it was impossible.

Therefore, the blow in the form of war will make Europe realize that peace must be paid for. Hopefully this will happen and consequently the European psyche will change. They will unite for the sake of security.

There is no real unification right now between European NATO members, as true unity should be properly felt and a desire to unite should not be caused by compulsion i.e. the threat of war. Now it is happening only for lack of choice, but it is still a step forward to reveal the truth, which is to see how much there is a lack of union between the European countries and how weak and helpless they are.

So nature, the Upper Force, is working through Russia to awaken the lethargic Europe. It is the same force that created the world and drives humankind through all kind of predicaments and hardships to come closer and unite with each other.

Through the generations, the Upper Force has imbued humanity with pride, selfishness and other egoistic desires. The traits have caused all sorts of problems including separation and war. Since we all have the same selfish desires, we see the rest of the world as a tool to fulfill our whims. Thus, we exploit and take advantage of others for years, thinking that this is how life should be.

In our generation, these distinctions, which have lazily evolved through historical periods of slavery and coercion, plunder and cruelty, are gaining renewed importance. From now on, these insights will no longer develop gradually within us, but will fall upon our understanding like a slot machine from which a successful move drops an abundant stream of coins.

In the first phase, human society will realize that it cannot manage life without connection. We will see through plagues, conflicts and wars, and other unpleasant events, that without better human connection we have no future.

In the second phase, we will want to unite not only to survive and exist, but to live properly. We will also find out what counts as true life, how to overcome the egoistic instincts within us and resemble the force of nature, where everything is in balance. All that is required of us is the realization that the abusive and selfish relationship between us will ultimately lead to our destruction. From there, the path to the pursuit of unification is short.
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My new article on Linkedin “America in Search of a “New Normal””

According to a study published by Pew Research Center, two years into the pandemic, “a growing share of Americans appear ready to move on to a new normal, even as the exact contours of that new normal are hard to discern.” Although “the official count of coronavirus deaths in the United States … is now approaching 1 million lives,” writes the research center in another report, and the excess mortality due to Covid-19 stands at 20 percent, Americans desperately want to resume normalcy.

Unemployment has dropped to pre-pandemic levels, children are at school, businesses are open, and sports and entertainment events are running almost as before. But escalating violence, a deepening divide between red and blue, and the plunging popularity of the president indicate that a new normal will have to mean a new society.

The American people are very different from most other nations. It did not emerge from a core group of related people, a clan that evolved into a tribe, which grew into a nation. The United States is a country of immigrants or descendants of immigrants. People of all backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities, cultures, and faiths inhabit it. Often, these nationalities, cultures, and faiths carried with them centuries of enmity when they came to the “land of unlimited possibilities.”

While in the past, it seemed like the American people have managed to overcome the chasms and develop a distinctive identity, it now appears that the fabric of society is tearing at the seams. The last presidential elections have deepened the division between Republicans and Democrats, and the time since the elections has only made matters worse.

Also, racial tensions have been growing once again, and the Critical Race Theory is being warmly adopted in some states, and vehemently rejected in others. At times, it seems as though America is on the verge of another civil war.

In light of the situation, I think that America should treat the chasms as a calling for its people to finally mend the rifts and glue the individuals into a cohesive nation. America has all the resources, all the know-how, and every reason to exert in this direction since its future depends on the solidarity among its people more than on anything else.

In regards to cohesion and solidarity, I think that American Jews can and should play a major role in fostering unity. Being a nation that emerged much like the American people—when people from different, often vying tribes and clans joined together—the Jews have it in their DNA to connect above differences.

At the moment, Jews are divided more than any other nation, faith, or ethnicity on the planet, but the seed of unity is buried in the unconscious of every Jewish person. It was King Solomon who wrote, “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Prov. 10:12), and it is the Jewish people who were commanded not to hate their brethren and love their neighbors as themselves (Lev. 19). At times when we observed these commandments, we were a light unto nations; when we turned away from each other, the world turned against us.

If American Jewry unites its broken ranks, it will set an example that the rest of America will gladly follow. And if America unites, it will be an example to all of humanity.

It may be ironic, but it seems as though the war in Ukraine has given America something to unite around: their objection to Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. A newly found unity will give America the power it needs in standing up to Russia. If leveraged correctly, it can put the American society back on track toward realizing the pledge of allegiance to be “one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
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The situation in the world is becoming more explosive every day. The entire world is rigorously following the rapid development of events in Ukraine. Kabbalists, however, do not deal with politics and geographical boundaries.

Kabbalists want only one thing: to add love or at least to decrease hatred wherever possible and reduce the confrontation between people, and we must help to do that.

Therefore, the main tool is prayer. If with its help we manage to cause greater connection among people, it will be for the benefit of humanity and to delight the Creator. The Creator had to create creatures to be opposite to Him, broken, so that humanity would ask for connection above hatred and rejection. Then we will understand, feel, and discover what unity means.

The main thing is to reveal the force of connection. There cannot be one without the other. Therefore, the Creator suffers more than everyone, but He has no choice, He had to create nature in this form. Our task is to try with our prayer, desire, and plea to force Him to correct everything. He is waiting for our request for correction and He will do everything right away. He needs nothing but our desire.

The only thing that is initially missing in creation is our desire to be equivalent to the good force of the Creator. The Creator needs the desire of the created beings, so He created the entire creation in deficiency. And we need to reveal this deficiency.

Therefore, until we ask for peace, fulfillment, perfection, love, and connection, it will not happen. We need to want connection at all levels to the full measure. By this, all of nature, all the worlds, will return to the completely corrected state where we are all connected and all of us will reveal the force of connection, which is eternal and complete.

The Messiah is not a person, but a force, a spirit that appears and disappears according to our desire. When we want to come closer to each other, it comes, and when we do not want to, it leaves. Messiah is a force that pulls (Moshech) us from our egoism to bestowal, love, and connection.

Therefore, if we understand that we need this force that will pull us from the bad into a good state, from separation to connection, from hatred to love, then we are calling on the Messiah. Let’s do it together.

The main problem is the indifference inherent in our nature. Sometimes a specific incident or a wounded animal touches our heart more than a war between countries. In the meantime, we exist in egoistic qualities that are not corrected.

This is why we care about things that are close to our hearts. A small breakdown in your own home worries everyone more than world events, supernova star explosions, or a hurricane on the other side of Earth. This is how our egoism depicts reality to us.

However, if we together with all our might ask the Creator to let us feel in the tens what it means to exit ourselves and feel the force that operates between us, then we will begin to reveal the upper force that resides among us. Then we will begin to notice things in the world that are more important to the Creator and not to our individual egoism.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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My new article on Linkedin “We Are Free – Free to Pray”

Even in the worst of times and under the most extreme situations, our hearts are always free. Whatever we face, we can choose how to relate to it. Now that there is once again a war in Europe, we can choose unity. War, after all, is only the most extreme state of disunity. Its antidote, therefore, is unity, and we can achieve unity if we pray for it—everyone, around the world.

A prayer is a precise request that comes from the bottom of the heart to mend a painful situation. In a state of separation and enmity, nothing can stop us from praying for unity and love. We are always free to pray.

A war is won with the spirit, not with weapons. Therefore, we must raise our spirits above our dismal physical situation and pray for the strength to unite our hearts above all the differences, divisions, and hostility.

If all of humanity unites around the war in Europe and prays for it to stop, for the parties to find the strength to resolve their differences peacefully, no ill-will will be able to resist it. Together, humanity can extinguish the fire of war around the world. This war is on us, on all of us. It is our duty, the duty of each and every one of us, to pray from the bottom of our hearts that the enemies will lay down their arms.

Everything that happens, happens in order to connect humanity, to unite it. The terrible events that are currently unfolding must become a springboard for global unity. However, this can happen only if we do not shirk our duty to rise above ourselves and form a global mutual responsibility.

If we do not seize the opportunity we have been given to strengthen unity around the world, then we are also to blame for what is happening and what is yet to happen.

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Question: You said that the most important thing is to reach unity, even at the smallest level. How can unity be divided into levels? Isn’t unity absolute: either we have it or we don’t?

Answer: Each level has its own measure of unity. We have a desire and against this desire we have the upper light. This is all graduated in 125 degrees and each degree has its own correction. Then there is an ascent to the next degree, the revelation of shattering and its correction, and so on. That is, everything repeats itself at each degree. However, these repetitions are completely different from each other.

Question: What is unity?

Answer: Unity is when you work toward one goal and that is what unites you.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Normalization with Gulf States Will Not Bring Normalization with the World”

Recently, Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor-in-Chief of the Arab Times, wrote an op-ed that urged Gulf states to normalize relations with Israel, and criticized the Palestinians. Al-Jarallah stated that Gulf states should not support the Palestinians financially or mediate between them and Israel “whenever one of them throws a missile at Israel.” If they attack Israel, he suggested, “let them rebuild what they destroy by their own acts.” In conclusion, Al-Jarallah stated, “All the Gulf states should normalize relations with Israel due to the fact that peace with this most advanced country is the right thing to do.” As for the Palestinians, he vented, “Let the foolish fend for themselves.”

Naturally, the Israeli media quoted the op-ed extensively. Finally, someone in the Arab world has listened to reason, looked at the facts, and realized that the Palestinians are the aggressors and Israel is acting only in self-defense. I, too, was happy to hear about Al-Jarallah’s words, but I think that if Israel did what it is supposed to do, it would have no enemies at all, not even the Palestinians. After all, we are the people who conceived the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and we are the ones expected to realize it.

An alliance with Israel may be great for the Gulf states, and I am certainly happy when any Arab country wants to make peace with us rather than fight against us. However, for Israel, this is far from enough. No peace that we will make will hold until we make peace with one another. Look, for example, at the peace we have with Egypt and with Jordan. There may be absence of active fighting between us, but there is a lot of hostility toward Israel, especially among the citizens of the two nations. Therefore, in the event of a war, Israel cannot trust these countries not to join its enemies.

We may not realize it, but Israel, the startup nation, was initially a startup society. Our “experiment” was unprecedented, and has never been attempted since. The idea was that people who came from foreign, often hostile nations, could form a nation by extolling the idea of unity itself. If successful, the “formula” would be a role model for humanity.

For centuries, we teetered between success and failure, but in the end, we failed the world: We fell into such diabolic hatred of each other that the world has never since tried to establish a nation based on mutual responsibility and loving others as yourself.

Nevertheless, the world did not forget our obligation. Not only our own scriptures remind us of our mission, but antisemites and historians also recognize it.

Among those antisemites is the most notorious Jew-hater in US history: Henry Ford, founder of the automobile company. In his antisemitic composition, The International Jew – the World’s Foremost Problem, Ford details his grievances against the Jews. Yet, here and there, he throws some very thought-provoking statements: “It may be that when Israel is brought to see that her mission in the world is not to be achieved by means of the Golden Calf,” he writes, “her very cosmopolitanism with regard to the world and her inescapable nationalistic integrity with regard to herself will together prove a great and serviceable factor in bringing about human unity.” Ford also complained that “the total Jewish tendency at the present time is doing much to prevent” Jewish unity.

Regarding being a startup society, Ford advises contemporary sociologists to study the ancient Israeli society. In his words, “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems on paper, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

Similar to Ford, acclaimed historian Paul Johnson wrote in his comprehensive composition A History of the Jews, “At a very early stage in their collective existence [Jews] believed they had detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot.”

To this day, the world regards us as indebted. It cannot forge the kind of unity that it needs today—among nations and faiths—and it does not see the example it needs to receive from us. This is why the Palestinians can feel confident that the world will side with them. It blames us for every conflict on the planet, not only with the Palestinians, but also among themselves. And until we make peace with one another and become the pilot society, the social model that the world expects to see, we will remain the world’s pariahs.
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Question: How can we help our country and the people living in it move toward connection? And how do we affect them by our unification?

Answer: I would advise you to first of all develop the relationships between you. This is the most important thing. When the spiritual force, the property of bestowal, love, and connection appears in you at least a little, then it will simultaneously emanate from you and outside of you. This is what the masses will feel. But in the meantime, I do not think it is necessary to talk about it, advertise it, or do anything about it.

But spreading the general knowledge that a good connection between us leads to a better life is necessary. This is what we are doing all the time.

Question: How can we encourage each other to believe that it is possible to feel faith above reason?

Answer: This possibility depends only on you and on no one else. And the state of the world is arranged in such a way that if you want, you will necessarily and quickly achieve change. It all depends on the magnitude of your desire. So go ahead! Do not believe anyone that it is impossible, that it is hard. Our main problem in this world is to reveal the Creator, then everything will be clear to us. Good luck with this!
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5

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My new article on Linkedin “The Political Olympic Games”

The International Olympic Committee writes on its website that the Olympic Truce was established in ancient Greece through the signing of a treaty between three Greek city-states—Elis, Pisa, and Sparta—to allow safe participation in the Olympic Games for all athletes and spectators, who were otherwise in constant conflict with each other. Today’s three superpowers—the US, China, and Russia—are doing just the opposite, using the Olympics as a stage for political warfare that only increases animosity. Worse yet, despite the UN General Assembly resolution of October 25, 1993, to observe the Olympic Truce, the rest of the world takes sides in the feud.

The whole concept of sports has become so self-centered and distorted that it has lost its merit. For this reason, I would cancel these competitions altogether. If we bring the wars into the games instead of using them to end the wars and promote peace and unity, then there is no point in holding them at all.

Even without an official boycott, as in this year’s Winter Olympics, the war still rages and the athletes pay the price. They are doped, suffer frequent injuries, and are often verbally, physically, and even sexually abused by their coaches. Spectators, too, are pitched against each other in the name of national pride, the exact opposite of the spirit of unity that should prevail in the Olympic games.

Ideally, the games aspire to build “a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” Today’s Olympic “Games” could not be further from this spirit.

Competition is great when it motivates us to improve ourselves. But there is no self-improvement in being ready to kill one another because one person jumped with a stick one centimeter higher than his or her competitor. And what about the whole issue of defining gender in women’s sports? The whole concept of sports has become so self-centered and distorted that it has lost its merit.

For this reason, I would cancel these competitions altogether. If we bring the wars into the games instead of using them to end the wars and promote peace and unity, then there is no point in holding them at all.

We should compete over who helps the world the most, not over who exploits and abuses others the most. Are these the values we want to pass on to our children? Is this the kind of people we want them to grow up to be? If we want them to live in a world where they can trust others and have friends to associate with, we must at least try to set an example of unity and mutual consideration. Afterwards, we should encourage them to follow in our footsteps. But if the Olympics do not promote the spirit of unity, then we should not hold them.
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