“Death comes to the Blacksmith with a scythe and asks him to sharpen it. He sharpens the scythe in horror, thinking that Death has come for him.

He sharpens it and says, “I can’t believe I’m holding a weapon in my hands that has mowed down so many people.”

And suddenly Death jumps up to him and says, “I didn’t kill anyone, not a single person! It’s not me! It’s you killing each other and blaming me.

I used to be a beautiful girl. I met the souls of people and escorted them to their resting place. And today I wore black clothes so that you couldn’t see the blood on me. I put on a hood to hide the tears that I cried, because I can’t stop this horror of your hatred—these wars, and blood, and so on. And today I’m an old woman. You made me like this.”

So says Death as she takes the scythe, turns around, and leaves.

And then he quietly asks her: “Why do you need a scythe then?” She replies: “The road to paradise—it has long been overgrown with grass” (Translation of”Domovoy’s Diary” by Evgeniy Cheshirko).

My Response: 🙂 Good!

Comment: Which means, as always, we blame someone. We do it in a terrible way: death with a hood, black clothes, and a scythe. And we don’t see that…

My Response: …that this is actually the road to heaven. In fact, it is so.

According to Kabbalah, our world is the worst of the worlds, the lowest of the worlds. And therefore there is nothing to regret that your being in it ends.

Question: I wanted to ask another question that Death asked. She said: “It’s you! Look at yourself! That’s how you are, not me. You created my scary image, and you are so scary yourself.”

Here there is a reversal. In principle, is this the main thing that a person should do?

Answer: Of course. He is killing himself from day to day, instead of making himself a free, bright, and eternal being.

Question: And then what will this Death with a scythe turn into?

Answer: It is necessary to kill egoism in a person.

Question: Does the person do it within himself?

Answer: Within himself, yes.

Question: What do I reveal then?

Answer: That your egoism is killing you, and you have to kill it.

Question: What attitude will I have toward death then, since it will come to me one way or another?

Answer: Calm!

Question: I won’t depict it like this?

Answer: No! It’s just a transition from one state to another.

Question: In principle, I could depict Death with a scythe as something very light. Can I eventually advance to this?

Answer: Yes. Death is a light state.

Question: Do I draw it in a black state when this black exists in me, when there is egoism in me? And when I start working with it, does everything turn over for me?

Answer: Yes. Renounce egoism and you enter the bright world.

Question: And then death will seem to be a completely bright state?

Answer: Of course. After all, only the quality of egoism is being killed in you and there remains a small quality of altruism that was in you, but you did not bother to develop it. And when you develop it, then everything changes for you.

Question: When they tell you that the road to paradise is too overgrown and it needs to be cleaned, what do you imagine?

Answer: We must go to that entrance to paradise—the quality of bestowal and love—and try to tread, to trample this path for everyone.

Question: When they say “overgrown,” what is it overgrown with?

Answer: Egoism. We feed this road with our egoism. It is overgrown, of course. We do not allow the quality of bestowal and love to manifest, which would clean this road.

Question: So it’s not that easy to pass through this road? Does it really need to be mowed? And the scythe needs to be sharpened?

Answer: It is necessary to sharpen it.

Question: Is this done by the person himself?

Answer: Of course.

Question: What does it mean that I have sharpened my scythe and mow?

Answer: I go out against my egoism and I just want to cut it off, to cut it off until it practically disappears.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/18/22

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Comment: A girl sued her parents because she was born without her consent. As if she could somehow agree. And at first she even won the court.

Below I quote this young girl from her Instagram post:

“A few months ago I sued my folks for having me without my permission. And I won. So the court ordered them to pay me $5,000 a month to cover my basic expenses. Well, they went and had that appealed. So now they don’t have to give me any money. And now I have to go get a job. And I’m realizing, like I don’t have any work experience, or any higher education. Nowhere is paying me $5,000 a month. So how the hell am I supposed to afford to pay my bills? … Don’t have children if you don’t want to support them.”

My Response: She’s partly right. It only depends on how much and up to what age to help. Because if you give birth, you take responsibility.

Comment: But she is a grown-up girl. Someone who can study and work a bit. But this is the relation to the world in which a person simply does not want to be.

My Response: I understand her. If she really does not want to relate to the world and regrets that she exists, then her claims against her parents, in general, can be understood.

Question: What are these claims against parents?! They supported her as best they could. And at some point they stopped supporting her. She has to support them at some point. What kind of claims are these?!

Answer: But it depends on society, on education.

Comment: Many people have such a question: “Why was I born?” Some make claims to parents: “Why did you give birth to me?” and others ask the question: “Why was I born?” You are always advocating for this question to arise in a person.

My Response: Of course. So that a person finds out what he is born for explicitly.

Question: And to whom should one send this question?

Answer: To oneself. Whom else? What did the parents know about it? Also nothing. And I don’t know anything. They don’t have any questions, but I do. So go and find out.

Question: If I ask myself this question, can I find the answer in myself?

Answer: Yes. You can find this answer only in yourself.

Question: And what will it be like?

Answer: Whatever you will find. Look for the meaning of life.

Question: When a person asks himself this question, and, for example, an answer comes to him, at what point is he sure that this answer is correct? Does a person have such confidence?

Answer: Let him search. And he will select all possible questions and answers that he will have at the same time, and he will get to something interesting.

Comment: If a person, for example, is not looking for an answer to this question, but simply lives in this life and that’s it. He has no such ups and downs.

My Response: If not, very good, let him live quietly. A person who is looking for an answer in himself, on the other hand, really has a desire, an urgent need, to find out about himself, about his history, his fate: where I am from, where am I, what am I for, and so on.

Question: Do you welcome this?

Answer: Of course. He can become a human, that is, can understand: what he is here for, and what kind of secret is in him.

Question: A happy person for you is one who feels ups and downs, descents and ascents, in search of the meaning of life. Big ascents and big descents?

Answer: Yes. But he’s a Human.

Question: And is this a happy man?

Answer: I do not know if he is happy.

Question: And when will he be happy?

Answer: When he gets to his core: to what he exists for.

Question: Can happiness be permanent if he gets to this core?

Answer: Yes, then he will be in constant happiness. Because he will merge precisely with the question and answer that he asked himself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/18/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What social framework should we develop for a better future?“

We are now entering a completely new framework in humanity, spanning families, towns, cities and nations. Today, nations have become replaced with a new kind of mixture, similar to how separate vegetables turn into a salad. This is especially visible in Europe. There is no framework like there was around thirty or forty years ago. For instance, you used to be able to visit a city and see the city’s character, and today it is no longer the case.

It is because we are currently going through serious changes where we will have to determine a new framework for our lives. We will first need to scrutinize what is the meaning of our lives, and accordingly build a new framework.

Toward such an end, we need to seriously ask ourselves: What is the meaning of life? What do we live for? In the past, we had a clear picture of why we lived. We lived in order to get married to a young spouse. We knew their family and they knew ours, and we started living together and building a home. We knew everything in advance. Today, it is far from the case.

If we want to enter certain professions, for instance, to become biologists or psychologists, then we know that we have to prepare ourselves, to go through university, to study from books related to those fields, and to take an interest in various biological or psychological works. We then invest ourselves for several years in such environments and grow into our professions, and we then perhaps also advance to a doctorate or other specializations. It is clear and laid out. But how many people are there in the world who follow the north star in such a way?

We need to determine our goal and build a plan for how to reach it. Society is a key factor in realizing such a plan. In the past, we had societies that supported us. Today, we also need a society that supports such goals. We can understand the need for a supportive society from our professions. We cannot achieve anything if we remain by ourselves, because we are then like animals, and unless we are like animals in the wild that have their own instinctual frameworks, then we are lost.

Based on the video “What Social Framework Should We Develop for a Better Future?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Arvut on the Way to Lishma“

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “American Jewry Should Stay Out of Israel’s Internal Affairs”

The results of the general election in Israel are very difficult to swallow for many American Jews. Not only did they prefer Yair Lapid to Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, they loathe Netanyahu’s likely coalition partners. The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was explicit about it, writing, “The Israel we know is gone,” and “Lord save us if this [Right leaning government] is a harbinger of what’s coming our way [to America].” He also stated that every Jewish student who supports Israel and every Zionist American Jew will have to rethink their support, and every Israel supporting politician will dread being interviewed about Israel.

Friedman is not alone. In the weeks and months leading up to the election, Jewish American organizations poured millions of dollars into the Arab society in Israel to encourage them to vote in order to weaken Israel’s Right, since they vote for Arab and anti-Zionist or Islamist parties. Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Israeli Arab anti-Zionist Islamist party Balad, asked in dismay during an interview [in Hebrew] on Israel’s Channel 13: “Why would an American Jew, who doesn’t understand us [Arabs], who doesn’t know where we live, pour millions of dollars into building all kinds of mechanisms to raise the voting percentage—busses, phone calls, people going door to door, etc.”

The answer to Abu Shehadeh’s question is clear and simple: They did this to prevent the State of Israel from democratically electing a government according to the will of the majority of the people. The truth is that the majority of American Jews think only about making their lives in America calmer and more convenient. For them, Israel is a pain in the neck. They want an Israeli government that aligns itself with American interests, at the expense of its own. This is how the majority of American Jews feel about Israel, and anyone who says otherwise is, well, a politician.

I want to be clear about this: American Jews have no right to interfere with internal affairs in Israel, certainly not in the results of the election. They do not live in Israel; they are not responsible for what is happening here, and they do not have Israel’s best interest in mind, only their own.

There is an oft-cited argument that because American Jews donate to Israel, they deserve to have a say in Israel’s affairs. If it were up to me, I would ban all money transfers from America to Israel, no donations, and no support. We will do just fine without it. Only those who live here should have a say in who runs the country.

Besides, Israel’s position in the world and the way that non-Jewish Americans relate to Israel and to Jews in America has nothing to do with the identity of Israel’s prime minister. Israel’s status is determined by the level of Israel’s internal cohesion. The more united Israeli society is, the more it garners the world’s support.

Through their donations, American Jews increase division in the Israeli society, leading to more hatred of Israel and antisemitism in their own country and around the world. By trying to work only for its own interest, American Jewry is producing the very result it is trying to avoid: intensification of antisemitism. As is always the case with Jews, we have no enemies other than our own selfishness.
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Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Today, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Words are power. Can silence be called a force?

Answer: Sure. This is especially evident in the family when the wife, for example, is silent. Her husband tries to get her to talk, but she is silent. Is that not power?

Question: I do not know, I have not tried that, but it is hard to disagree. So she wants to say something with this silence?

Answer: Yes. This is a very strong form of information transfer. Or, when someone does not want to talk to you and declares a boycott.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/23/22

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Comment: I heard of a 100-year-old woman in Australia who said that a long life stems from a calm attitude to any tumultuous life events. She recommends not holding on to grudges and to live in the here and now. She said her motto was: “Don’t worry about things that may never even happen.”

I envy these people who can treat everything like this…

Answer: But they are not alive. Not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, but living only in the here and now, is how a cow lives. Any animal lives in the here and now. If they have premonitions, that’s another matter. But if this sensation is not given to them, then they live with what they have. Look at how they sit, stand, lie down, and sleep. Everything is very simple—whatever the body dictates.

But not a human being. He burdens himself with all sorts of cosmic problems. Stars are exploding somewhere, and this worries him. Being concerned with where you are. This is life.

But your calm bodily existence, this is the life of an animal. If you live only by what you have, the way the body lives, then that is all.

Question: Is it basically impossible to keep a calm attitude to tumultuous life events?

Answer: That depends on the level of your attitude. “I have a calm attitude to everything that does not concern me physically. I am blind to everything else, it does not exist.” It is not about me.

A Kabbalist is open to the whole world. He is open. It is not that he is running around to gain impressions and information, but he has to come out of himself and participate in the world, absorb things inside of him, take in all the problems of this world, and process them correctly. That is how he activates his correction. By correcting the impressions of this world and putting them back out.

Question: So you understood in advance and understand now you are taking on a life that is not trouble-free? And this makes a Kabbalist happy, to live this way?

Answer: It makes him happy because it is a necessity. Otherwise it is not life, a Kabbalist cannot live another way. “One who adds knowledge, adds suffering.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/17/22

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Once people made 5-year plans, plans for 30 or 50 years. Today, no one makes any plans at all; the main thing is to live for today and that is it, and then something will turn up.

Therefore, if we look from the point of view of the elites or a narrow circle of people who, as they think, choose to rule the world and force nature to act one way or another, it turns out that today there is no need for such a massive number of people.

If we now quietly, calmly, without any problems, with diseases, deaths, and break up of the family, and with people beginning to take seriously the rejection of marriage and having children, then within even one generation the population of the Earth will be halved. Then, over the next generation, it will be halved again, and so on. That is, let’s say, in a 100 years the population can be reduced to two billion.

A generation is replaced every 20 to 25 years. Imagine if a couple give birth to just one, then the population is reduced in half. If they do not give birth to anyone, then this is a 100% reduction.

Such research of population reduction plan ordered through the media, psychologists, and ideologists have long existed. Mass media, the development of the Internet, family problems, the promotion of homosexuality, drugs, and divorce, in general everything, is aimed at destroying the concept of the “institution of family.” All this has already been calculated and special programs are being created.

We can understand that this is being done painlessly, “with love” for humanity because otherwise we will not survive on earth. People “eat” each other, eat the earth, and destroy its balance, which already does not exist.

In order to feed the population in an egoistic way, there is not enough land. If we take into account the mountains, valleys, seas, oceans, forests, and pastures, it turns out we have an average of fourteen square meters per person. It is possible, of course, to build a huge number of cities, but this is not rational, it completely depletes the Earth. We have sucked everything out in some 50 years.

It means that we have a serious problem that can be solved by reducing the population to a reasonable limit. This problem is solved by egoists who reason sensibly. How else can we solve it? A huge number of people are like bees: there are drones, there are the workers, and there are those that are not workers. But with bees it is clear that there is a value in all the groups. But not here!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Destruction of the Earth’s Population” 9/11/13

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Question: Why is there such a thing in nature that if a person commits some kind of offense, he must be punished?

Answer: It is not punishment, but correction. Only people punish each other just like that; nature punishes according to its program; therefore, this is called correction. In this way, it urges you to do what you have not done yet.

Comment: I am asking about the nature of a person, about his desire to punish others. If someone has done something, he must be punished, imprisoned, and lynched.

My Response: This is how the egoistic nature of a person manifests—to harm others. After all, in accordance with this, I feel good because I live by constantly comparing myself to others.

Question: How should it be?

Answer: Eventually there should be a completely different system with only mutual assistance in complementing each other up to the level of the Creator, connection, and mutual guarantee because we are all parts of one soul.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Ideal Punishment” 10/5/13

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