In the News (ABC News): “Nine European countries said Tuesday that they have seen ‘no substantial evidence’ to support Israel’s allegations that six Palestinian civil society groups are terrorist organizations and would not change their policies on supporting the groups.

“The rare joint statement was a major rebuke of Israel, which backlisted the groups as terrorist organizations last October but has provided little evidence to support its allegations. The rights groups denied the allegations and accused Israel of escalating a long-standing crackdown on Palestinian opposition to its decades-long military rule. …

“’Accusations of terrorism or links to terrorist groups must always be treated with the utmost seriousness,’ read the statement, issued by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

“’No substantial information was received from Israel that would justify reviewing our policy towards the six Palestinian NGOs on the basis of the Israeli decision to designate these NGOs as “terrorist organizations”’ it said.”

Question: Support for creating two states for two peoples was also expressed. How do you feel about the two states for two peoples?

Answer: Very negatively! The nation we are going to be neighbors with has not shown itself to be a friendly country we can exist side by side with in any way.

Question: So they should first act as a neighbor and only then can we be neighbors?

Answer: Absolutely. Let’s do this: Given the current situation, within the framework that we have today, let’s establish normal normative relations between us. Then we can gradually reach the state where we can be neighbors.

In the meantime, nothing can be done.

Comment: As long as everyone claims our land, as long as there is terrorism…

My Response: Yes. This is a well-known tactic of theirs; piece by piece they keep slicing away until they end up swallowing you.

Question: Why is Europe so idealistic?

Answer: They are not idealistic! Nor democratic! They have only one thing, acting in order to pass things off as good deeds. None of it really matters to them at all!

Question: What is important to them? For us not to exist?

Answer: Of course. For them, the existence of Israel is unpleasant to say the least, it is even unbearable! It is choking them.

Question: Are you talking about those civilized countries?

Answer: About all those civilized countries.

Comment: By the way, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands are there.

My Response: Those are the most anti-Semitic countries.

Question: Why do they have it in for us so much?

Answer: No reason. The fact that we are Jews. That we are Israel. That we are smart. That we can build our own country and win wars.

Question: What should our actions be in this case?

Answer: Not to give an inch. No way!

Question: What policy should we stick to?

Answer: A closed door policy. That is all! You want to kiss the closed door? Please, come and kiss it. We do not negotiate about this.

We have no one to negotiate with! Because we see no partners! You are not partners. You come from the outside and want to force us to sign a contract with those whom you impose on us. We have been in this state for quite a long time—decades! This can be characterized as a positional war.

We seem to be in constant war. The fact is: these are not partners and those are not neighbors. Such is the state we are in. Therefore, we will not listen to these, and we will separate ourselves from those.

Unfortunately, this is our fate until we change. Until we change ourselves in accordance with the upper laws, until we become one good nation for ourselves! Until we come to Kol Yisrael Haverim and we become friends close to each other—absolutely all Jews.

Question: Will this be imparted to our neighbors?

Answer: No, we are not forcing anyone. This is how we want to live ourselves. Let us first build ourselves as a nation where everything exists according to the principle of goodness and mutual kindness.

And until we build this, we will be separate. Then, we will see. If you want to join us by following the same principle, no problem.

Comment: So, what you are saying is that the seed of everything is the kind, warm relations of brothers and sisters. It will be the people of Israel. That is what it should be. And only then, if they want to, neighbors will become neighbors and eventually come join us. The world will become…

My Response: “All around Jerusalem,” as they say. Jerusalem becomes the capital of the world. It is said about this: if the nation follows this, Jerusalem shines on the whole world. All these beautiful countries have to understand and agree to this.

Comment: And we ourselves should agree.

My Response: Yes. But they do it in order to extract billions for themselves, create dozens more commissions, hide behind them, and keep criticizing.

Question: Are they doing this in order to make money and earn dividends on it?

Answer: Exclusively! They are normal basic egoists.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/18/22

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Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Israel, Israel Today, News | Add Comment / Ask Question →

There is a popular saying in Latin America: “Children and drunks always tell the truth.” Why do we lose this sincerity and truthfulness as we grow up? Why does a person develop toward lying?

It is because our mind develops in order to protect us from the harm that we can do to ourselves. Since we are always chasing egoistic fulfillment, we are forced to hide this desire, and therefore, we deceive all the time. It turns out that we are all liars because we do not want to do anything good to others, but we are outwardly hypocritical, pretending that we are doing good deeds toward one another.

We try to hide our intentions from each other, which are aimed only at using others for our own benefit.

Only the environment determines how close or far from the truth a person will be. The environment affects a person and is able to radically change him from one polarity to the other. It can make him good and kind to others, and the opposite to the point where he becomes complete unrecognizable.

If we create a society in which everyone agrees to build good relations as the most important value, then it will be possible to teach both children and adults correct relationships so that everyone feels that they depend on others and are obliged to behave with them carefully. If we feel our dependence on everyone, it will not be at all difficult for us to treat them with warmth.
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From KabTV’s “World” 8/11/22

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Question: What is the difference between what the science of Kabbalah offers humanity and what ordinary education teaches about loving each other and being good children? What is our know-how?

Answer: Our know-how is that we need to create groups in which people would communicate with each other and begin to feel that by getting closer they really enter into a completely different sense of the world, and that it is in the closeness, and not children, but adults, they should rise above their egoism, above the force that separates them from each other.

People should understand that by coming closer despite opposing egoistic forces, they will be able to feel a completely different state of themselves, others, and the connection between themselves and others.

They should begin to feel the new state of society, which is based on friendship, love, and mutual support. This is what we need to teach them.

In principle, this is the basis of the holiday Tu B’Av (Day of Love) that follows the 9th of Av, which represents shattering, separation. The 15th of Av (Tu B’Av) means, on the contrary, unification, closeness.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 8/5/22

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Question: In our life, as a rule, if a person did something wrong, it is customary to apologize. How are things in Kabbalah? After all, a Kabbalist, in principle, understands that everything that happens is beneficial.

Answer: If you cause obvious harm to a person, then you are obliged to apologize to him.

We have a code called “Set Table” (Shulchan Aruch), which is similar to how you set the table before a meal. If you follow this code, it opens up a normal, beautiful life for you. It describes all the laws: between people, between people and animals, between people and nature, with oneself, with parents, with children, with generally everything.

These are like the instructions for use that are attached for machines, but these instructions are for a person.

Question: Should a person publicly apologize?

Answer: No, not necessarily. Only if you publicly insulted someone; then you have to apologize publicly. And if the person has died? You must bring ten witnesses to his grave in the cemetery, take off your shoes, sit on his grave and ask in front of the witnesses that he forgive you. There are such interesting conditions.

Question: But at the same time, who knows who does good and who does bad? For example, we may perform some supposedly negative action and we do not know what we are doing.

Answer: When a person grows spiritually, he knows. He receives other opportunities to balance what he did in the past.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Sorry…” 2/27/13

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Comment: You told me how your teacher Rabash was patient with his haters. He tried to justify everyone because he perceived everything as an interaction with the Creator, as a common system.

My Response: Yes, but all the same, in interaction with the Creator there are such images that are pleasant, decent, and noble and there are ones that are opposite them. Therefore, I do not have to love everything. If I love everything, I will not correct anything.

Question: Then what is the essence of this correction? Was Rabash processing what was revealed to him within himself and then giving out this information?

Answer: He was not saying anything to anyone. He was only teaching his profession: how, by controlling yourself, one can begin to control the immediate environment and build the next degree through it. This is the profession of the Kabbalist.

But he was not giving out any useful information. Today I do it because the world has become common, round, and interdependent. The world depends on how we develop relative to it and how it appears to us relative to ourselves.

This interdependence forces the Kabbalist today to come out of his corner and take some interest in politics, economics, and so on. This is why I write relevant blog posts. Kabbalists of the past did not even dream that they would have to answer such questions and be engaged in this.

Comment: Rabash, however, was very secretive. Apart from the information he passed to you, he did not really get in touch with anyone.

My Response: He did not have to. Who could he talk to? There is nothing to talk about with believers, they simply believe. There is nothing to talk about with non–believers, they do not believe. He only spoke with those who came to him and wanted to study, to sit down and study.

Even when a person comes and sits down, what is there to talk about with him? There is nothing to talk about. You open the initial material or give him to one of your students so that he can study with him. Rabash never studied with the new ones. He always passed them on to others. That was all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Love the Enemy” 2/18/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When should parents support their child, and when shouldn’t they?“

The support we receive from a young age builds us for life, so it is imperative that children receive support. However, together with the support, children need to understand that we give them support in order to progress them, i.e. that they have to realize themselves.

If we end up doing everything instead of the children, then if we later do not do something, they will feel insecure. Moreover, if we do everything instead of the children, then they will have no need for a sense of confidence, which ends up becoming detrimental to their development.

We thus need to support children in a way where they receive everything they need in order to realize themselves.

Based on the video “What Is the Best Way to Support Someone?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Filip Urban on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic, “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 5, Item 1

Selected Highlights 

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

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Medium published my new article “No Confidence? No Happiness”

We feel confident when we are hopeful about the future. When we have something to look forward to, we have a reason to live. If we lose it, we lose hope, happiness, and might even become suicidal. The future is more important to us than the present because the present will pass, but if the future is bleak, it makes everything black.

Look at how much we invest to secure our future: health insurance, home insurance, social security, life insurance, car insurance, and if we can, we save money in various forms of investments and savings accounts. We do all these precisely because we are so uncertain about the future.

Previously, our family was our anchor, our safe haven. That is no longer the case. We often feel alone and isolated, and cannot be certain that anyone will come to our aid when we need it. We are living in the age of loneliness.

As our world changes, it is becoming increasingly interconnected, and everyone influences everyone else. We are all dependent on each other, and the network of ties exposes our need for mutual responsibility, which we do not have.

At the same time, revealing our lack of solidarity is the first step toward building it, since if we do not know that we need something and do not have it, we will not try to gain it. Therefore, now that we have realized that we are interdependent, we should begin to learn how to conduct ourselves in such a society.

Our task today is to restore confidence in the future, and thereby happiness. We will achieve this only by adapting our society to the integrated reality of our lives. In other words, we need to learn to care for one another to the extent that we are dependent on each other.

A newborn baby is completely dependent on its mother. However, the mother’s love for her baby makes both the baby and the mother happy. The correspondence between the level of dependence and the affection they feel for one another makes the dependence pleasant rather than a burden, which is how we feel it in our relations with people for whom we do not care.

Dependence without mutual care, therefore, leads to lack of confidence and happiness. Dependence joined by mutual concern leads to feeling confident and happy. Since dependence is an irrevocable fact, if we want to feel secure and happy, we must learn to care for one another.

Achieving this requires everyone’s participation. There need to be appropriate educational programs, participation of the members of the community or town, and eventually all of society, as well as a proper emphasis on developing such programs on the part of the authorities. Currently, we are still looking for other solutions and try to deal with each problem separately. When we find that our efforts lead to no solution unless we deal with the root of the problem, we will be willing to make a coordinated, collaborative effort to change our society for the better by learning to become more caring individuals.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Hidden Cause Behind England’s Water Shortage”

Despite the recent torrents in London, this summer, England has been experiencing a serious drought. But not only England, most, if not all of Europe has been experiencing a sweltering summer with gigantic forest fires that have consumed countless homes in addition to trees and wildlife.

But there is another problem that is exacerbating the crisis: leaking pipes. Water companies in England and Wales lost more than one trillion liters via leaky ‎pipes last year. In the US, the situation is not much better. According to a report on Technology Networks Applied Sciences, “An estimated 20 to 50 percent of water is lost to leaks in North America’s supply system.”

If the climate is changing and droughts have become more frequent and more severe, why are we not doing something about it? Why are we letting so much water go to waste? There is a simple answer to it, and this is the hidden cause that makes the climate crisis so severe in the UK and around the world: We do not care about each other. If we did, we would not let this happen.

If I were to build a home somewhere for my family, would I not see to a proper water system? Would I not see that it is properly maintained? Of course I would. Because I love my family, I would see that our water supply system is intact.

In other words, the leaking pipes are merely an indication of a much bigger problem: alienation and carelessness among us. Why do we have homeless people? Why are there drug addicts lying in street corners until their lives run out of them? Why are there so many people abused and bullied and enslaved? There is only one cause behind all these wrongs, one problem that we need to fix. From the slightest injustice to the most horrible crime, they all stem from our lack of care, from our indifference, coldness, and the pleasure we derive from other people’s pain. If we cared, or at least did not hate so much, our world would be infinitely better.

Every problem has its scientists and experts who make plans for tackling it. (Notice they do not talk about improving, much less solving it.) They never succeed. For all the budgets that they get, things are not getting any better. There is a good reason for this: There is no care in all their plans, no heart in all their actions.

How come mothers can usually raise their children successfully unless external circumstances beyond their control prevent it from them? In fact, sometimes they succeed despite impossible circumstances, but these are exceptions, not the rule. Mothers succeed because they care, and for no other reason. They have no plans, no foreknowledge about being a mother, and often get conflicting advice from friends and “consultants.” Yet, for the most part, they raise their children fine. Why? because their love guides their actions. If love guided our relations with our fellow persons, we would be living in a very different world, a far better one than we have today.

If previously, we could get away with our negative attitude toward each other, today’s world is so interconnected that everything we do affects everyone else far more quickly and intensely. If kindness, or even mutual consideration were optional until only recently, today they are mandatory.

We can argue that caring for each other is unrealistic and idealistic, that it is an unachievable and naive goal. It may seem that way, but if you consider that the option of letting things continue as they have been leads to certain decimation of much of humanity, I hope you will agree that idealistic or not, it is worth giving it a serious effort. If we acknowledge the fact that we are all dependent on each other, we will realize that no matter what, we must find a way to stop hating, and start caring for each other, even if just a little bit.
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