Israel—75 Years of War and Peace

421.01Question: We have reached a milestone date: 75 years of Israel’s independence. It has been 75 years since the Jews found their home, 75 years of wars, 75 years of proving that this is our place, that we want to live here, and so on. These have not been easy years.

How would you sum up this 75th anniversary?

Answer: I would like us to understand that time is not working for us. We must admit that in the eyes of the world, despite all our attempts to present ourselves as the best, we still look like the worst.

Comment: This is a paradox. We have huge achievements in medicine, in progress, in everything.

My Response: Absolutely no one needs this from us. On the contrary, if we suffered, then maybe a certain number of non-Jews would love us. Or rather, they would feel sorry for us. But not in this way.

Comment: The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam welcomed the creation of the State of Israel.

My Response: He hoped that this state of Israel would be the right one.

Comment: What do you consider right?

My Response: It is when the people who will inhabit it will try to show the entire world what the purpose of a person’s life on Earth is.

Question: You take it globally. What about the fact that a home was created for Jews who were persecuted and exterminated?

Answer: What for?

Question: To live at home, so that no one touches you. Is that not an idea?

Answer: This is impossible for the Jews. We were kicked out of our home. We have never had our own home in general. The fact that we lived for several hundred years, even less, in the land of Israel in the past, says nothing.

Question: How about the fact that Temples were built here?

Answer: So, what? We took the land from other nations and built them. Were there no nations here before that?

Rashi wrote that the nations of the world would come and ask: “Why did you take the land away from the nations who lived here?” And the Jews will have to answer. He asks, what can we answer?  “The entire earth belongs to the Creator. He gave it to other nations, and then took it from them and gave it to us.”

But this is correct if we follow His instructions, will, and desire. Yet, we do not do that. Therefore, there is no life for us here and there will not be. Will not be! I say this to everyone and always.

Comment: We started by saying that this is a holiday, but what you are saying does not sound festive.

My Response: This is a holiday because the people received the opportunity, as Baal HaSulam says, to exist on their land and fulfill their mission before all of humanity. So, if we fulfill it, because this opportunity still exists, then everything will turn out right and everyone in the world will understand why Jews exist and what we should do.

Question: What is the mission of the Jews, and why do they exist on this earth?

Answer: The Jews exist in order to live on this earth in unity with each other, in such a unity that will be called absolute unity. When they will be able to show all other nations an example of how to actually live without wars, without violence, without mutual hatred.

This is what we must show to the whole world. Then we will have the right to exist. Everyone will understand why we exist at all. And everyone will be happy to see that we exist on our own piece of land in order to translate all this into action and example.

Question: Then will everyone want this piece of land to exist, for Jews to live here, and for them to prosper?

Answer: Yes. In particular, our cousins the Arabs.

Question: In that case, what is independence in light of what you are saying?

Answer: Independence is independence from our egoism, when we can rise above it and show this example to all the nations of the world how to live in connection, in friendship, and in mutuality. Everyone will want to follow it.

This is our mission from above. Therefore, we are a special nation in this sense, and we cannot escape anywhere from fulfilling this mission. But it may take several thousand more years until we come to this.

Question: Thousands of years?!

Answer: Thousands. Has it been 2,000 years? Another 2,000 years will pass. It does not matter how long it takes, but we still will not be able to run away from fulfilling our mission.

We can hope that over the next 2,000 years, we will understand something after all.

Question: Is there such a layer in us that it cannot be penetrated?

Answer: The egoistic layer is such that maybe the next 2,000 years will do something to us.

Question: But anyway, one way or another, this is not our work, this is the work of the Creator. He might as well do it tomorrow. Why do we have to wait 2,000 years?

Answer: We are obliged, we have to agree to this job. We must wait for such a revolution in ourselves when we want to be not competing with each other but loving each other, to “love your neighbor as yourself” and be able to convey this as an example to all other nations of the world.

Comment: You have always said that a good businessman is a strategist, he looks forward to many years. A bad businessman wants to quickly grab something right now and that is it. You are such a businessman that you are looking forward to 2,000 years. You are engaged in this, you are disseminating this, and at the same time, you are saying that this is…

My Response: I live in this every day with the hope that after some time, I am not saying 2,000 years, but as we understand, not yet today, the people will begin to change.

Comment: And for this, you are ready to keep saying it today and repeating it.

My Response: In order for this to begin to be implemented in a few thousand years.

Question: But are you still an optimist?

Answer: I am not an optimist. I say that this is the law of nature, and we will still be obliged to implement it.
[311981]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/20/23

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We Are All Lonely Whales

961.2In the News (New Scientist): “In 1989, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts detected an unknown sonic presence at 52 hertz. It was initially thought to be from a submarine, but marine biologist William Watkins later determined that it was the sonar signature of a whale, which he gave the nickname “52”.

“It is an unusually high frequency for whale vocalisations, and Watkins was intrigued enough to search for 52 until his death in 2004. But despite picking up 52’s call every year, Watkins never found the mysterious whale. …

“Why 52 calls at this frequency is also a mystery – the whale’s species hasn’t been confirmed, and it is possible that it is the only one of its kind in the ocean. The one thing we do know is that 52 is almost certainly a he: male whales do the singing.

“The reason for 52’s presumed loneliness has nothing to do with the fact that he has always been detected swimming alone. Instead, it is because the unique frequency of his call means that other whales can’t understand to respond. …

“In our increasingly connected world where contact and interaction is only the click of a button away, the fact that so many people still report feeling lonely makes it easy to identify with 52’s situation. There is something deeply affecting about a creature as intelligent and social as we know whales to be, swimming the vast ocean, year after year, never having any proper contact with another of its kind.”

My Response: In place of humanity, I would still start to get in some kind of contact with it. If the frequency at which it talks or wants to talk is known, then we have no problem creating such a device.

Question: Do you think it wants to communicate?

Answer: Undoubtedly. But it scares other whales away with its higher frequency.

Question: And what should we, such lonely whales that live in this world and exist in this loneliness, do? Now a lot of people have gone to live in huts in the forest somewhere in the Taiga and have been living there for 20 to 30 years. This is how people live.

Answer: It is their choice, and I would not say that it is bad. They still find themselves there. Through communication with themselves, they communicate with nature. Perhaps even with the Creator. It is better than communicating with people.

Question: Especially in our time?

Answer: Of course. If they do not feel that they have a special goal, a mission, that obligates them to be in the world among people, then they feel very good. I think that, in principle, they find themselves there.

Question: And if you had a choice, would you go somewhere?

Answer: Undoubtedly.

Question: Would you lock yourself in a room?

Answer: Undoubtedly! I am trying to do that anyway, although this is all unsuccessful. But I still move away from people, from the world, as much as I can.

Question: Is it possible to create a world in solitude? Is it possible to love loneliness? Is it possible to be in it all the time?

Answer: If a person rises, really rises, then he feels he is alone; he is lonely. This is a wonderful state, but at the same time he feels himself in connection with the Creator.

Question: Still a person advances to this?

Answer: Yes. This is the lone whale.
[309813]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/16/22

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Build Your Spiritual Future

283.01Question: Do you feel how much a person is invested in what is given to him?

Answer: First, participate in everything the main group does. Secondly, it is necessary to do internal work, which, in principle, the main group does and constantly talks about. Do all this and you will advance forward.

How much to invest? Invest and you will see. When you work together with everyone, you gradually get involved in a common spiritual work, you will not go anywhere. So it goes.

Question: Do you feel how much a person’s investment is to his maximum or not?

Answer: What is the difference?! It is his own business. What kind of test can there be? He is building his spiritual future with this!
[311243]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What to Expect from Kabbalah?” 12/22/12

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Out of Balance

764.1Comment: From time to time there are reports in the press that thousands of birds, fish, or other animals are dying all over the world.

My Response: Such reports appear only when it is clearly happening in front of people’s eyes, but in fact, we are in the state of a huge, terrible catastrophe!

This is not just an ecological disaster, but a natural one where we will have nothing to eat. Not only will there be no money to buy something, printing it is not a problem, you will not be able to feed anyone! There will be food riots, epidemics, a kind of ten Egyptian plagues, if we do not start to change ourselves.

Mankind, with its persistent unwillingness to pay attention to what nature requires of us, causes increasingly harsh, severe forces, like a child who does not want to listen to what he is told. Eventually, he will be forced. But with what methods?!

As long as they don’t give him a slap, it doesn’t matter. “Let’s live somehow without it! You can’t do anything.” And when the time comes that we are no longer able to do anything, airports will stop, communication will disappear, there will be no normal water.

We see what is happening. I don’t want to scare anyone. I’m just stating that all this suggests that we are out of complete balance with nature.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Mass Death” 1/9/11

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Life Should Be Much Simpler

79.01Question: Nastya writes: “One day the lights went off and I called a neighbor who had two children and invited her to visit me. We were sitting and talking at the table with candles burning with the children were nearby. As soon as the lights came back on, the children ran and turned on the TV, and we became silent.

What do you think about this feeling of happiness that was there and then was suddenly gone?“

Answer: Yes, it is gone because it presses. But it has always been so. Recall past times, even centuries ago.

Question: How can we feel such happiness now? Is it possible in the light, with modern technology, progress, and all this or not?

Answer: No. With present life, the way of life, its pace, and everything else that exists, we cannot make ourselves happy. We give in to what we have created, and it is killing us.

Question: I would say that we are bought. Do you think it is not necessary to create or still move toward the goal, toward what I want to be?

Answer: To move toward the goal, you just need to live in a much simpler way, not to wait until nature, society, or the Creator crush us, but do it, perhaps reasonably and gradually, somehow by yourself.

Question: Do you have an idea of how a person should do it?

Answer: It will not work to turn off the lights. It will not work to diminish anything. There are too many interested egoists who will still produce all sorts of rubbish and make all sorts of dull productions on screens—anything possible. All this needs a very strong push and revelation of evil in order to correct it.

How can we uncover this evil? By a serious war?

Question: In whom will it reveal itself, in consumers or in those who push everything into a consumer?

Answer: It is required from both sides. Both from producers and consumers.

Question: So that it is suddenly revealed that this is all evil?

Answer: That this is the end! You cannot go any further; that is it! There must be an uprising. Let us make the world simpler, more understandable, more comfortable, and most importantly, calmer. In such a world we will be able to clarify in ourselves what we are for, why, and what we should come to.

Question: And the last question, what will we understand in this case, as you said? What will we understand then?

Answer: We will understand that the main thing is what a person desires in this world. So that he clarifies it, but very seriously, not halfway. And then he will achieve this goal.

Question: So do you put it this way: “I need to get rid of all this ‘noise’ and very, very quietly focus on what I want.”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is that all? And what will he understand? What he wants?

Answer: He will understand the meaning of life—the most important thing that he has.

Question: What is it in?

Answer: The meaning of life is in attaining the meaning of life.

Question: It is like a wheel: the meaning of life is attaining the meaning of life. Is there some kind of eternity in this, in what you are saying?

Answer: Of course. It is absoluteness, eternity, perfection, and infinity.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/14/22

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Eternal Happiness

572.02Question: What is happiness?

Answer: Happiness is the feeling one has at the moment of achieving a dream; it is a contact with a dream or at least with something one desires.

In corporeal life, a person comes into contact with various pleasures, but he is still unhappy because these contacts bring death. They instantly disappear. They are temporary because everything ends.

At the end of everything there is death, hopelessness, and disappearance. Therefore, as the saying goes, there is no happiness in life. And indeed it is so because life has its limits.

Happiness is when you come in contact with a dream; it is with you, and it is eternal. There can be no happiness if it is transient. Therefore our world is inherently flawed.

Question: Is the attainment of the first degree of the spiritual world already attainment of happiness?

Answer: It is the attainment of eternity and perfection. Even if it is not yet complete, you understand that you are entering this degree. Then you already know where you are going, and you already have different ideas about the world, the universe, and existence.

You understand that you are dealing with eternity, perfection, infinite fulfillment, infinite knowledge, and that whatever you want, you will be able to obtain.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Happiness” 1/18/11

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New Life 159 – The Ten Commandments, Part 2

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New Life 159 – The Ten Commandments, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The Ten Commandments instruct us to maintain certain norms in order to reach connection, reciprocity, mutual responsibility, and harmony among us as a new type of society. They were placed before us at Mount Sinai as a symbol of our transcendence above hatred and separation. We discover the ten laws of the single system on our way toward complete, mutual connection. We need to re-establish all of the Ten Commandments with a new quality. For example, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) actually means that I should not cut myself off from anyone, even when it seems as though the other person hates me. We begin to connect according to the principle, “love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and the spiritual meaning of the Ten Commandments will be revealed to us along the way.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 159 – The Ten Commandments, Part 2,” 3/17/13
This summary was written and edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman

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What Does Slander Lead To?

224Comment: There is a state when a student speaks against a teacher.

My Response: Then he is not a student! By doing this he completely cuts himself off from spiritual advancement. Much has been written about this. The most important thing in our movement is simply to idolize the friends, the group, the teacher, and the Creator, and to do it more and more at that. How will you advance without this?

If someone speaks badly about the teacher, then that is it, he cuts himself off! After all, in spirituality there are no conditions that someone heard something, and someone did not. You have such thoughts, that is it! Nothing else matters.

There are many so-called students who attend classes, hang out in different groups, and think badly or speak badly of others. I am very sorry that such events take place because it is useless to deal with them, in the end they will not advance.

Question: But can a person get through this state and become aware of it? Or do you think that if he went into such a stupor, he would not come out?

Answer: For everything, so to speak, there is forgiveness, but a person must work on himself. It happens to everyone! I am completely calm about this. But he should be aware of what he is controlled by.

Comment: You said that it is necessary to remain silent and not interfere with those states of a friend that seem bad to us.

My Response: You can sometimes point at it in jest or in between words. But in general no! What is the benefit of that? He must experience all this internally and rethink it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To Hate the Teacher and Friends” 12/29/12

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“What is true freedom in a nutshell?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “What is true freedom in a nutshell?“

True freedom is freedom from our egoistic nature, where we are enslaved to the desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone in every one of our intentions.

When we become freed from our egoistic intention for self-benefit, we attain true freedom: we enter a state of positive connection where we then enjoy benefiting, supporting and caring for each other.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on April 26, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/1/23

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